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| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-02-05 00:37:12 -0800 |
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| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-02-05 00:37:12 -0800 |
| commit | 7a648be959ea5a4b50705de92d3ef7db8d75019e (patch) | |
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| parent | 94228bcdda0a6d5d5b87577e65ed9111119c58bc (diff) | |
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diff --git a/50322-0.txt b/50322-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8940dc4 --- /dev/null +++ b/50322-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,576 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 50322 *** + +Biographical Sketch of Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of 1847 + + +The Pioneer Spirit + + The Pioneer Spirit that mastered things + And Broke the virgin sod, + That conquered savages and kings, + And only bowed to God. + The Strength of mind and strength of soul-- + The will to do or die, + That sets its heart upon a goal, + And made it far or high-- + + --Clarence Hawkes + + +Orville Southerland Cox + +Biographical sketch of Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of 1847, partly +from a sketch written by Adelia B. Cox Sidwell for the "Daughters of +the Pioneers", Manti, Utah, 1913. + +Orville S. Cox, was born in Plymouth, N.Y. November 25, 1814. He was +one of a family of 12 children, ten of whom reached maturity. His +father died when he was about fifteen years old. And he was then "bound +out"; apprenticed to learn the trade of a blacksmith under a deacon +Jones, who was considered an excellent man as he was a pillar of the +church. The agreement was that he was to work obediently until twenty +one and that Jones as to give him board and clothes, three months +of school each winter, and teach him the trade of blacksmithing. +No schooling was given or allowed, and one pair of jeans pants was +all the clothing he received during the first three years of his +apprenticeship, and his food was rather limited too. The women folks +ran a dairy, but the boy was never allowed a drink of milk, of which +he was very fond because the Mrs. said "it made too big a hole in the +cheese." He was indeed a poor little bondsman, receiving plenty of +abusive treatment. As to teaching him the trade, he was kept blowing +the bellows and using the tongs and heavy sledge. But the deacon +sometimes went to distant places and then the boy secretly used the +tools and practiced doing the things his keen eyes had watched his +master do. During some of these hours of freedom, he made himself a +pair of skates from pieces of broken nails he gathered carefully and +saved. + +Also, he straightened a discarded gun barrel and made a hammer, +trigger, sights, etc, to it, so that he had an effective weapon. +These things he had to keep hidden from the eyes of his master and +associates, but secretly he had great joy in his possessions and once +in a while found a little time to use them. + +Occasionally the monotony at the bellows and with the tongs and +sledge--was broken in other ways;--for example--at one time oxen were +brought to the shop to be shod that had extremely hard hoofs, called +"glassy hoofs". Whenever Deacon undertook to drive a nail in, it bent. +Cox straightened nails over and over, as nails were precious articles +in those days and must not be discarded because they were bent. After a +while, the boy said "let me". And he shod the oxen without a bending a +single nail; And thereafter Cox shod the oxen, one and all that came to +the shop. + +One other pleasant duty was his: that of burning charcoal, as coal was +then undiscovered. He learned much of the trade of the woodman while +attending to the pits in the depth of the might New York Forests, as +well as having an opportunity to use his skates and gun a little. + +He acquired the cognoman of "Deek" among his associates, and when he +had worked for something over three years, he came to the conclusion +that was all he ever would acquire, along with harsh treatment; so +during one of the Deacon's visits to a distant parish, he gathered +together his few belongings and a lunch, between two days, shouldered +his home made gun and "hit the trail for the tall timber", that being +the route on which he was least apt to be discovered. He made his way +toward the Susquehannah river. First he reached the Tioga River, which +was a branch of the Susquehannah. He began reconnoitering for a means +of crossing or floating down the river and soon discovered a log canoe, +"dug-out" as it was called, frozen in the mud. He decided to confiscate +it as "contraband of war" and pried it up, launched it, and was soon +floating and paddling in it down toward the junction of the Tioga and +the Susquehannah. + +Shortly he felt his tired feet being submerged in cold water. Stooping +to investigate, he found that the log was leaky and rapidly filling +with water. He also found an old woolen firkin, a small barrel, that he +at once began making use of, bailing the water, alternately paddeling, +steering and bailing. He continued down the stream, keeping near the +shore as possible, in case the old dug-out should get the best of him. +The second day he heard "Hello, there, will you take a passenger?" from +a man on shore. "Yes, if you'll help bail, steer, and row." "Barkis is +willin", came the reply, so there were two in the log canoe. + +Then they made better time. Nearing the confluence of the rivers, they +saw a boat preparing to leave the dock for a trip up the Susquehannah, +a primitive stern wheel packet of those early days (1831). He and his +passenger applied themselves to their paddling, bailing and steering, +signalling the boat to wait; just as she started he drew near enough to +leap from the dug-out to her deck. + +A free boy! For now he was sure pursuit would not overtake him. His +passenger called "What shall I do with this canoe?" "Keep her or let +her float" shouted Cox. (If the owner of that dug-out will send in his +bill for damages, O.S. Cox's children will cheerfully settle.) As for +food on this trip with the canoe, game was plentiful and he was a good +shot. While on this boat, he must have worked his passage, for he had +no money. + +On board that boat with a Cargo of Southern Produce, he, for the first +time in his life, saw an orange. He remained on this little river +packet some distance up the river, then lended and found lucrative +employment at lumbering and logging, and sometimes at the blacksmith's +forge. Soon he had the good luck to find his two brothers, Walter and +Augustus, rafting logs down the river. He was an expert at this himself. + +Now he learned that his mother, and her younger children, Amos, +Harriet, Mary and Jonathan had gone to Ohio under the care of his +older brother, William U., via the great world famous Erie Canal; (at +that time the largest canal in the world.) So by slow degrees and +hard work he began to work his way toward Ohio. Usually he worked for +lumber companies. His two brothers did likewise. They literally walked +wall the way through the forests, the whole length of the state of +New York. Finally they were united as a family in Nelson, Portage Co. +Ohio, the former home of his future wife, Elvira, although she was +at that time an emigrant in Missouri. The eight Cox boys continued +their westward course; some of them reached California during the gold +stampede. Charles B. Cox was elected Senator from Santa Rosa Company +for a number of terms. William U. had put his property in a concern +called the Phalanx and was defrauded by the officers of every cent and +left in debt $3000.00, an enormous sum for those days. Orville's mother +Lucinda, and her family went to Missouri. Walter had receive the gospel +in Ohio previously. Orville heard terrible stories of the outlawry of +those "awful Mormons"; but he became personally acquainted with some +(Among them a Sylvester Hulet). He decided they were sinned against. +He lived in Jackson County for a time, and ever after Jackson County +Missouri was the goal of his ambition; He believed to his dying day +that he should one day return to that favored spot. + +Orville met and loved Elvira in Far West, but was not baptized. He said +he didn't propose to turn Mormon to procure a wife. When the Saints +were driven from Missouri, he located near Lima, Illinois, with a group +of Mormons and helped build the Morley settlement. + +Nearing his 24th birthday, he was a thorough frontiersman, forester, +lumberman, a splendid blacksmith, a natural born engineer; in short a +genius and an all around good fellow. He was six feet in his socks and +heavy proportionately. + +While here he won the heart of the orphan girl, Elvira P. Mills, who +was living with her uncle, Sylvester Hulet. But she hesitated about +marrying a gentile. October 3, 1839, however, she yielded, and they +were married in Father Elisha Whiting's home, at the Morley Settlement +by Elder Lyman Wight. + +The two newly weds, on October 6, 1839, drove into Nauvoo twenty miles +away, and Orville S. Cox was baptized by the Prophet Joseph Smith. He +went a gentile and returned a full-fledged Mormon, so short a time +it takes a woman to make a convert. He was a faithful L.D.S., full of +love and zeal. He was a member of the famous brass band of the Nauvoo +Legion. When the Prophet and his brother were killed, none mourned more +sincerely than he. He assisted those more helpless or destitute in the +migration from Nauvoo. His stacks of grain were burned at the Morley +settlement by the robbers, and they fled to the City of Nauvoo, he with +his wife and two children--the oldest child had died when an infant +as a result of its mother having chills and fever, and from exposure +resulting from mobbers' violence. + +He attended the meeting where Sidney Rigdon asked the Saints to +appoint him as guardian, and where Brigham Young claimed that the +Twelve Apostles were the ordained leaders; and many times thereafter +he testified that he saw Brigham Young changed to appear like +Joseph and heard his voice take on the Prophet's tone. And after +that manifestation he never doubted for a moment that the rightful +leadership of the Church was vested in the twelve, with Brigham Young +at their head. He remained in Nauvoo till almost the last departed. He +assisted Browning in transforming the old rusty steamer shafts into +cannons that were so effectually used by Daniel H. Wells at the Battle +of Nauvoo. + +Leaving Nauvoo with the last of the Mormon exiles, he crossed Iowa +and settled at Pisgah, where he served as counselor to Lorenzo Snow, +President at Mt. Pisgah. In his devoted attachment to Lorenzo Snow, +he was an enthusiast; also to Father Morley and he would follow their +leadership anywhere. Orville and Elvira had their two children, Almer +and Adelia. + +An incident that illustrated the pioneer life of 1845-6 is told in the +story of the "Last Match." In the winter of 1845-6 Orville S. Cox and +two Whiting boys, cousins of Elvira, went from Pisgah with ox teams and +wagons down into Missouri with a load of chairs to sell. Whitings had a +shop in which they manufactured chairs. Being successful in disposing +of their chairs, and securing loads of bacon and corn, they were almost +home when an Iowa blizzard, or hurricane, or cyclone, or all in one, +struck them. Clouds and Egyptian darkness settled suddenly around them. +They had not modern "tornado cellars" to flee into and no manner of +shelter of any kind. The cold was intense; the wind came from every +direction; they were all skilled backwoodsmen and knew they were very +close to their homes; but they also knew that they were hopelessly lost +in that swirling wind and those black clouds of snow. They and their +oxen were freezing, and their only hope of life was in making a fire +and camping where they were. Everything was wet and under the snow, +and an arctic wind in the fierceness of unclaimed violence was raging +around them. At first, they unyoked the oxen that they might find some +sort of shelter for themselves. Then with frost-bitten fingers they +sought in the darkness and storm for dry fuel. The best they found was +damp and poor enough--and now for a match. Only three in the crowd, and +no such matches as we have in these days either. Inside a large wooden +bucket in which they fed grain, they carefully laid their kindling. +Then turning another bucket over it to keep out of the falling snow, +and hugging close over to keep the wind off, they lifted the top +bucket a little and one of the Whiting boys struck a precious match. +It flickered, blazed a moment against the kindling and was puffed out +by a draft of wind. Another match was taken, and it died almost before +it flared. Only one match remained to save three men from certain +death. Their fingers were so numb they could not feel, and every minute +increased their numbness. "Let Orville Try; he is steadier than we", +they said. So Orville, keenly sensing his responsibility, took the tiny +splinter of wood and struck the spark; it caught, it blazed and the +fire lived and grew. + +Now they were in the woods and the fuel was plentiful and soon a +roaring blaze was swirling upward. The cattle came near, and although +their noses and feet were frozen, their feet grew new hoofs and +their noses healed of frosted cracks. When the storm broke and light +appeared, they found themselves only a few rocks from their home fences. + +For a good reason, Orville was not in the Battalion draft. The Whiting +boys, Sylvester Hulet, and Amos Cox were. But Orville was very busy +manufacturing wagons. It was told of him that he found a linch pin and +said, "I'll just make a wagon to fit that pin". He prepared as good +and serviceable an outfit as his limited means would allow for the +long dreary journey to the mountains. Two home made wagons, without +brakes--brakes were not needed on the eastern end of the journey--two +yoke of oxen, three yoke of cows, a box of chickens on the back of a +wagon, a wife and two children, with bedding and food, was the outfit +that started across the plains the last of June 1847, singing the song +"In the spring we'll take our journey. All to cross the grassy plains." +He travelled in the hundred of Charles C. Rich, known as the Artillery +Company. Cox was captain of one of the tens. Oh! the seemingly endless +level prairie! The monotony was terribly wearing. When Independence +Rock was sighted, and again when Chimney Rock was sighted, it was +wonderful relief. Great land marks they were, in that unsettled +country. Now they were sure they were approaching the Rocky Mountains, +especially the children longed for that goal. + +One evening at camping time, 4:00 P.M., a herd of buffalo were sighted +about two miles away. The people were very hungry for a piece of fresh +beef, so Father and one companion shouldered their guns, snatched +their percussion caps and powder horns, and started to "try a hunter's +luck." About sunset they got their steak, a generous load of the best +cuts from the Buffalo, and started for camp. On and on they went. What +they thought was a two mile stretch lengthened and lengthened, and +their loads of meat grew heavier and heavier. They began to think they +were lost; but the camp fires and stars told them they were going in +the right direction. Finally they decided to fire their guns. This +they did, and it filled the camp with alarm, least the hunters were in +danger. Two or three men rushed away in the darkness to give aid, and +they fired their guns to locate the hunters. Several shots brought them +together. "Help us with this grub pile", they said. Help was given. +They reached the camp at 11:00 o'clock. It must have been six miles or +perhaps ten to the herd of buffalo. They were now in the clear air of +the up-lands and could see much farther than they had been able to see +in the Mississippi valley. + +The next morning all in the camp had a feast of fresh meat. + +After leaving the Platte River, while travelling along the sweet Water +River, the company met General Kearney and his company of Battalion +scouts with their illustrious prisoner, the great path-finder Freemont. + +(When California was freed from Mexican rule, Freemont and his little +band, who had helped to free it, were greatly rejoiced; and in their +enthusiasm his followers proclaimed Freemont governor. General Kearney +arrived and expected to be governor by right of his generalship. He was +very angry and had Freemont arrested and sent to Washington.) + +With Freemont's guards were Sylvester Hulet, Elvira's Uncle, and Amos +Cox. They had traveled many weary months in an unknown, lonely country; +and C.C. Riche's company were also travel weary. To thus meet relatives +so unexpectedly was a joy unspeakable to both parties. + +Now the battalion men heard from their families left in Iowa, for the +first time in more than a year. And tears of joy and sorrow were freely +mingled. A daughter of Amos had died. Sylvester's wife had gone to +New York where the Whitmer's and her father and brothers lived; so he +decided to return to the Rocky Mountains with the pioneers, and Kearney +gave him his discharge. Amos Cox continued with the prisoner to Fort +Leavenworth, where he received his honorable discharge, and then went +to his weary waiting family in Iowa. + +The pioneering company continued on westward. At Green River, near +Bridger's Station, they met pioneers who had reached Great Salt Lake +Valley and made a start toward a new home; and were now returning to +the camps in Iowa, with more definite knowledge and instructions to +impart to those who were to come to the mountains next year. They told +Rich's company many things regarding the way that lay before them, and +it was a great relief to know that they were nearing their destination. + +From now on the mountains were on every side; frowning cliffs looked +ready to fall on and crush the poor foot-sore travelers; for people +raised on the plains are apt to have a shuddering of such sights. C.C. +Riche's artillery company rolled into the valley of the great Salt +Lake. They were only two or three days behind Jedediah M. Grant's +company of one hundred wagons. + +Being expert in handling lumber, Cox was immediately sent into the +canyon for logs. Houses must now be built. Among other timbers, he +brought down a magnificent specimen of a pine for a "Liberty Pole", +which he assisted in raising on Pioneer Square. It was the first pole +to carry the stars and stripes in the city. One had been raised on +Ensign Peak before. They wintered in Salt Lake Valley. There another +son, Orville M., was born November 29, 1847. + +Very early in the spring of 1848 father moved from the Adobe Fort with +his wife and three children, and began farming in Sessionsville, Now +Bountiful; He was the first bishop of the ward. There they had the +famous experience with the crickets. He devised the broad paddles, as +well as the oft mentioned methods, to try to exterminate them; and then +came the Gulls. He raised a crop in '48 and '49 there; also he dug the +first well in Bountiful, and struck water so suddenly as to be drowned +by it before he could be hauled up. In the fall of '49 he was called to +go with "Father" Morley's company to colonize the valley of Sanpitch. + +He arrived at the future site of Manti November 19, 1849. The journey +from Salt Lake City to the Sanpete Valley occupied one month, breaking +new roads, fixing fords, and building dug-ways. The forty families +worked industriously, sometimes only movin' forward two or three miles. +One six mile stretch in Salt Creek Canyon occupied them a whole week. +The only settlement between Salt Lake and Manti was Provo, consisting +of a little fort of green cottonwood logs. + +After getting through Salt Creek Canyon in two weeks, they worked to +their upmost strength for it began snowing on them there; and it was +far from being a desirable winter's home. That winter was one of the +hardest with the heaviest snow fall for many succeeding years. Arriving +at their destination, camp was made by the Morley's company on the +south side of Temple Hill which was a sheltered spot. Now they must do +their upmost in canyons, raising log cabins, sowing lumber on the saw +pit, which was the most primitive of saw mills. + +Orville was an expert at hewing and squaring the logs with his ax, and +making everything as comfortable as possible in their home. All winter +long they had to help the cattle find feed by shovelling snow in the +meadows, as the snow lay four feet deep. It was May before the snow was +gone so that the men could begin to clear the ground and begin their +farming. Then there came irrigating ditches to dig and the usual labor +of clearing, plowing, and planting. + +Between their individual duties, they found time to build log school, +and a bowery, and then a meeting house. They felt that it was quite +commodious. Here in the long evenings of the winter of 1850-51 Cox +taught a singing and dancing school. Sarah Potty was the first school +of Ma'am. In the winter of 1850-51, school was taught by Jesse W. Fox. +In 1850 he was elected Alderman. + +O.S. Cox married Mary Allen about 1854; he served many years as the +first counselor to Bishop Lowry; and he was captain of the Militia. He +was very energetic in the performance of his duties, especially through +the protracted period of the Walker war. He married Eliza Losee about +1857-59. He served under Major Higgins, and old Battalion veteran. + +To be sure, nobody appreciated more than he did a liberty pole, and all +that it typified, so he was commissioned to find one at the earliest +convenient moment for Manti; this he did in 1850. Ten years he labored +faithfully for the upbuilding of Manti, and then like Boon and +Crockett, "he wanted more elbow room" and moved to Fairview, Sanpete +County. He also moved part of his family to Gunnison (Hog Wallow, it +was called then) and raised two crops there. In February 1864, he moved +part of his family to Glenwood, built a cabin there and raised a crop. +He sold out and moved elsewhere to engineer ditches. He engineered over +forty ditches in Utah and Nevada, as near as his children can remember +in 1910, as well as doing all other kinds of pioneer work. + +In 1865 he was advised by Lorenzo Snow to move to the Muddy, a branch +of the Rio Virgin, a stream running through Moappa Valley, to assist in +surveying and making irrigation ditches there. The soil was very rich, +but there was so much quick sand that it made it almost impossible to +build a dam that hold or to irrigate without washing away the soil. +So he went south into southeastern Nevada. He thought that was the +route the saints would travel going back to Jackson County, so he was +that much nearer the final home. He labored here for six years, and +engineered a number of dams that would hold against the floods and +treachery of quicksand. They had only poor home made plows and a few +other tools to work with, and no cement or modern building material. He +also built cabins and cleared and tilled the land there. In clearing +the land, the "Mesquite" brush root was the hardest digging they +encountered. St. Thomas, St. Joseph and Overton, the 3 towns in the +valley were partly of his building. The first trip, he took with him +his third wife, Eliza, and her one child, a little two year old girl; +and Walter, a 14 year old son of the first wife, Elvira. The following +year, after crops were in and the spring work done, he returned to +Fairview after another section of his family--Mary, the second wife, +and her five children. From that time on O.S. Cox's life is a volume of +tragedy and hardship. The life in the burning desert is always more or +less unpleasant, and pioneering is excessively hard. And he was past +fifty years old. + +During his absence, Eliza's little girl Lucinda, took her little pail +to the creek to get some water; the quicksand caused her to slip and +she was drowned. They took her out not very far from down the stream, +but could not resuscitate her. The poor mother, among strangers and +homesick, was unconsolable in her sorrow. Walter, seeing his little +pet companion stricken in all her robust beauty and health, was wild +with grief, and could not be comforted. After a time the neighbors +concluded that Walter would die if some change did not come to get +him to sleep and eat. They told Eliza of their fears for him, and so +the disconsolate mother tried to hide her own grief and comfort him. +It is said it was the saddest thing the woman there ever saw, to see +the brave mother and the boy trying to comfort each other in their +loneliness. Fifty years later, it was a nightmare to Walt. + +Almer, Laun and Walt all went to the Muddy in 1867, the year Mary was +moved. In 1868 Philmon, fifth son of Elvira, a very promising lad of +thirteen, died of appendicitis, at that time called inflammation of the +bowels. Then Mary lost a little daughter, Lucy for whom she grieved +many years. + +Financially the prospects were more promising than ever before. They +had planted a large orchard, and a vineyard that was just coming into +bearing. Then a new line was run between the states of Utah and Nevada, +which gave this section to Nevada, and Nevada demanded back taxes; +and they amounted to more than their farms and houses were worth. So +Brigham Young said, "Come home to Utah." They came. + +Elvira, with Orville a grown son, Walter 17, Tryphena, Amasa and +Euphrasia, returned to the old home in Fairview, leaving all of their +beautiful peach orchards and vineyards, fields of cotton, cane, wheat +and the comfortable houses in the most fertile of lands, which they had +subdued and made to "Blossom as the Rose" by seven long years of toil +and privation. They rendered absolute obedience to their great leader; +and so they hitched up their teams, took their most choice belongings, +and wended their way back to Utah, leaving their settlement and farms +to pay Nevada the back taxes it had demanded. + +One company which had thoroughly learned the trick of building a dam +in quick sand of the desert, stopped at an abandoned settlement in +Long Valley, Kane County. O.S. Cox and sons began the engineering of +irrigation canals and dams, and so on, as they had cleaned and repaired +the deserted cabins, so that they offered partial shelter from the +February storms. The people named this town Mt. Carmel. + +When the former settlers learned that they had builded dams that would +stand, they came back and said, "Get Out, this is ours," So the weary +pioneers moved again, this time only a few miles farther up the valley +into a pleasant narrow cove, and went to work to build more dams, more +ditches and more cabins. In one place the water had to be carried +across a gulley, and it gave more trouble than all the rest of the +canal. After a while Cox, without comment or consultation, went into +the timber and found a very large log and felled it, made of it a huge +trough, placed it across the gully and it reached far enough to secure +a solid bed above the quicksand. Thirty years later, this "Cox Trough" +was still doing successful service as a flume. + +In 1875, when Brigham strongly taught the principle of Cooperation, +this company of saints were organized by unanimous consent into the +united order of Enoch, and named their town Orderville. Their little +property, mostly cattle, horses and wagons, were owned jointly. Twelve +years father labored joyously and unselfishly in the "Order". The town +grew and thrived; the arts, schools and trades were remarkably well +represented by the young. Prosperity and a measure of plenty was there, +in spite of the fact that there were more infirm people in that ward +than any ward in the church. + +Then dissatisfaction and disunion came, and the "Order" broke up. +There was not a great deal of property to divide, although some people +came out with more property with others, according to the amount they +consecrated in. Mary and Eliza, father's second and third wives, each +received a team and wagon. Mary and her family located in Huntington, +Emery County, Eliza and her family in Tropic, Garfield County. Father +well along in years, and broken in health, could do little more than +advise his sons. Eliza was dying of cancer. In 1886 Orville S. Cox came +to Fairview to the best-provided for branch of his family. One year he +remained an invalid, and on July 4, 1888 he laid his exhausted body +down to rest. The passing was quiet and peaceful. His two wives Elvira +and Mary and many of his descendants were with him at the last. + +The following are some of the thriving towns O.S. Cox assisted in +founding: Lima, Ill.; Pisgah, Iowa; Salt Lake City, Bountiful, Manti, +Gunnuson, Fairview, Glenwood of Utah; St. Thomas, St. Joseph, Overton +of Nevada; Mt. Carmel, Orderville and Tropic of Utah. + +If man ever earned his salvation, surely O.S. Cox did. Always found +in the van where the hardest work was to be done, and if he advanced +the cause one iota, no matter at what loss, or cost to himself, he +considered he had been eminently successful. Never was there a murmur +from him. + +To illustrate the ingenuity of O.S. Cox's ditch making, here is the +story of the Pig Plow as told by an old settler of Fairview, Pappas +Brady. + +"When the ditch was first laid out that was afterwards called "City +Ditch", every man and boy was called on to come and work on it every +day til it would carry water. This was in the spring, and it had to +be finished before the fields were ready to be plowed and planted. +The men turned out well with teams and plows, picks and crow bars and +shovels. There was a rocky point at the head of the ditch to be ut +through, and it was hard pan, about like cement. Couldn't be touched by +plow, no siree; now more than nothing. We was just prying the gravel +loose with picks and crowbars, and looked like it would take us weeks +to do six rods. Yes, six weeks. Cox looked at us working and sweating, +and never offered to lift a finger. No sir, never done a tap; just +looked and then without saying a word, he turned around and walked off. +Yes, sir, walked off! Well of all the mad bunch of men you ever saw +I guess he was about the maddest. Of course, we didn't swear; we was +Mormons and the Bishop was there, but we watched him go and one of the +men says, "Well, I didn't think Cox was that kind of a feller." His +going discouraged the rest of us, just took the heart out of us. But +of course we plugged away pretendin' to work the rest of the day, and +dragged back the next morning." + +"We weren't near all there when here came Cox. I don't just remember +whether it was four yoke of oxen or six or eight, for I was just a boy, +but it was a long string and they was every one of a good pulling ox. +And they was hitched on to a plow a plumb new kind, yes sir, a new kind +of plow. It was a great big pitch pine log, about fourteen feet long, +and may have been eighteen, with a limb stickin' down like as if my arm +and hand was the log and my thumb the limb; he had bored a hole through +the log, and put a crow bar down in front of the knob; and cross ways +along the log back of the limb he bored holes and put stout oak sticks +through spikes. They were the plow handles; and he had eight man got +ahold of them handles find hold the plow level and he loaded a bunch of +men along on that log, and then he spoke to his oxen." + +"Great Scott, ye oter seen the gravel fly, and ye oter heard us fellers +laugh and holler! Well, sir, he plowed up and down that ditch line four +or five times and that ditch was made, practically made. All that the +rest of us had to do was to shovel out the loose stuff; he done more in +half a day than all the rest of us could a done in six weeks." + +"Why didn't he tell his plans the first thing, so we wouldn't be so +discouraged, and hate him so? Why, cause he knew it wouldn't do a might +of good to talk. He wasn't the Bishop; and even if he had been, plans +like that would sure be hooted at by half the fellers. No, siree! His +way was the best when a bunch of men and a thing a workin' they see +believe; yes, sir, seein' is believin." + + The Pioneer Mother + + Upon a jolting wagon sent she rode + Across the trackless prairie to the west, + Or trudged behind the oxen with a goad, + A sleeping child clasped tightly to her breast, + Frail flesh rebelling, but spirit never-- + What tales the dark could tell of woman's tears!!-- + Her bravery incentive to endeavor; + Her laughter spurring strong men past their fears. + + O to her valor and her comeliness + A commonwealth today owes its white domes + Of State, its fields, its highways, and its homes-- + Its cities wrested from the wilderness. + Its bones in memory above the hand + That gentled, woman-wise, a savage land. + + --Ethol Romig Fuller + + + +Transcriber's Note + +The original pamphlet contains many images that were omitted in this +electronic version. Scans of the original work can be found at +https://archive.org/details/biographicalsket00sidw. The poem "The +Pioneer Mother," originally presented in a sidebar, has been moved +to the end of the work for improved readability on typical e-reader +devices. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of +1847, by Adelia B. Cox Sidwell + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 50322 *** diff --git a/50322-h/50322-h.htm b/50322-h/50322-h.htm index dc39074..ff52ce6 100644 --- a/50322-h/50322-h.htm +++ b/50322-h/50322-h.htm @@ -1,980 +1,562 @@ -
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of 1847, by
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-Title: Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of 1847
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-<h1>Biographical Sketch of Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of 1847</h1>
-<br><p class="centered">The Pioneer Spirit</p>
-<p class="centered">The Pioneer Spirit that mastered things
-<br> And Broke the virgin sod,
-<br> That conquered savages and kings,
-<br> And only bowed to God.
-<br> The Strength of mind and strength of soul—
-<br> The will to do or die,
-<br> That sets its heart upon a goal,
-<br> And made it far or high—</p>
-<p class="centered">—Clarence Hawkes</p>
-<h3>Orville Southerland Cox</h3>
-<p>Biographical sketch of Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of 1847,
-partly from a sketch written by Adelia B. Cox Sidwell for the
-"Daughters of the Pioneers", Manti, Utah, 1913. </p>
-<p>Orville S. Cox, was born in Plymouth, N.Y. November 25, 1814. He was
-one of a family of 12 children, ten of whom reached maturity. His
-father died when he was about fifteen years old. And he was then
-"bound out"; apprenticed to learn the trade of a blacksmith under a
-deacon Jones, who was considered an excellent man as he was a pillar
-of the church. The agreement was that he was to work obediently until
-twenty one and that Jones as to give him board and clothes, three
-months of school each winter, and teach him the trade of
-blacksmithing. No schooling was given or allowed, and one pair of
-jeans pants was all the clothing he received during the first three
-years of his apprenticeship, and his food was rather limited too. The
-women folks ran a dairy, but the boy was never allowed a drink of
-milk, of which he was very fond because the Mrs. said "it made too big
-a hole in the cheese." He was indeed a poor little bondsman, receiving
-plenty of abusive treatment. As to teaching him the trade, he was kept
-blowing the bellows and using the tongs and heavy sledge. But the
-deacon sometimes went to distant places and then the boy secretly used
-the tools and practiced doing the things his keen eyes had watched his
-master do. During some of these hours of freedom, he made himself a
-pair of skates from pieces of broken nails he gathered carefully and
-saved. </p>
-<p>Also, he straightened a discarded gun barrel and made a hammer,
-trigger, sights, etc, to it, so that he had an effective weapon. These
-things he had to keep hidden from the eyes of his master and
-associates, but secretly he had great joy in his possessions and once
-in a while found a little time to use them. </p>
-<p>Occasionally the monotony at the bellows and with the tongs and
-sledge—was broken in other ways;—for example—at one time oxen were
-brought to the shop to be shod that had extremely hard hoofs, called
-"glassy hoofs". Whenever Deacon undertook to drive a nail in, it bent.
-Cox straightened nails over and over, as nails were precious articles
-in those days and must not be discarded because they were bent. After
-a while, the boy said "let me". And he shod the oxen without a bending
-a single nail; And thereafter Cox shod the oxen, one and all that came
-to the shop. </p>
-<p>One other pleasant duty was his: that of burning charcoal, as coal was
-then undiscovered. He learned much of the trade of the woodman while
-attending to the pits in the depth of the might New York Forests, as
-well as having an opportunity to use his skates and gun a little. </p>
-<p>He acquired the cognoman of "Deek" among his associates, and when he
-had worked for something over three years, he came to the conclusion
-that was all he ever would acquire, along with harsh treatment; so
-during one of the Deacon's visits to a distant parish, he gathered
-together his few belongings and a lunch, between two days, shouldered
-his home made gun and "hit the trail for the tall timber", that being
-the route on which he was least apt to be discovered. He made his way
-toward the Susquehannah river. First he reached the Tioga River, which
-was a branch of the Susquehannah. He began reconnoitering for a means
-of crossing or floating down the river and soon discovered a log
-canoe, "dug-out" as it was called, frozen in the mud. He decided to
-confiscate it as "contraband of war" and pried it up, launched it, and
-was soon floating and paddling in it down toward the junction of the
-Tioga and the Susquehannah. </p>
-<p>Shortly he felt his tired feet being submerged in cold water. Stooping
-to investigate, he found that the log was leaky and rapidly filling
-with water. He also found an old woolen firkin, a small barrel, that
-he at once began making use of, bailing the water, alternately
-paddeling, steering and bailing. He continued down the stream, keeping
-near the shore as possible, in case the old dug-out should get the
-best of him. The second day he heard "Hello, there, will you take a
-passenger?" from a man on shore. "Yes, if you'll help bail, steer, and
-row." "Barkis is willin", came the reply, so there were two in the log
-canoe. </p>
-<p>Then they made better time. Nearing the confluence of the rivers, they
-saw a boat preparing to leave the dock for a trip up the Susquehannah,
-a primitive stern wheel packet of those early days (1831). He and his
-passenger applied themselves to their paddling, bailing and steering,
-signalling the boat to wait; just as she started he drew near enough
-to leap from the dug-out to her deck. </p>
-<p>A free boy! For now he was sure pursuit would not overtake him. His
-passenger called "What shall I do with this canoe?" "Keep her or let
-her float" shouted Cox. (If the owner of that dug-out will send in his
-bill for damages, O.S. Cox's children will cheerfully settle.) As for
-food on this trip with the canoe, game was plentiful and he was a good
-shot. While on this boat, he must have worked his passage, for he had
-no money. </p>
-<p>On board that boat with a Cargo of Southern Produce, he, for the first
-time in his life, saw an orange. He remained on this little river
-packet some distance up the river, then lended and found lucrative
-employment at lumbering and logging, and sometimes at the blacksmith's
-forge. Soon he had the good luck to find his two brothers, Walter and
-Augustus, rafting logs down the river. He was an expert at this
-himself. </p>
-<p>Now he learned that his mother, and her younger children, Amos,
-Harriet, Mary and Jonathan had gone to Ohio under the care of his
-older brother, William U., via the great world famous Erie Canal; (at
-that time the largest canal in the world.) So by slow degrees and hard
-work he began to work his way toward Ohio. Usually he worked for
-lumber companies. His two brothers did likewise. They literally walked
-wall the way through the forests, the whole length of the state of New
-York. Finally they were united as a family in Nelson, Portage Co.
-Ohio, the former home of his future wife, Elvira, although she was at
-that time an emigrant in Missouri. The eight Cox boys continued their
-westward course; some of them reached California during the gold
-stampede. Charles B. Cox was elected Senator from Santa Rosa Company
-for a number of terms. William U. had put his property in a concern
-called the Phalanx and was defrauded by the officers of every cent and
-left in debt $3000.00, an enormous sum for those days. Orville's
-mother Lucinda, and her family went to Missouri. Walter had receive
-the gospel in Ohio previously. Orville heard terrible stories of the
-outlawry of those "awful Mormons"; but he became personally acquainted
-with some (Among them a Sylvester Hulet). He decided they were sinned
-against. He lived in Jackson County for a time, and ever after Jackson
-County Missouri was the goal of his ambition; He believed to his dying
-day that he should one day return to that favored spot. </p>
-<p>Orville met and loved Elvira in Far West, but was not baptized. He
-said he didn't propose to turn Mormon to procure a wife. When the
-Saints were driven from Missouri, he located near Lima, Illinois, with
-a group of Mormons and helped build the Morley settlement. </p>
-<p>Nearing his 24th birthday, he was a thorough frontiersman, forester,
-lumberman, a splendid blacksmith, a natural born engineer; in short a
-genius and an all around good fellow. He was six feet in his socks and
-heavy proportionately. </p>
-<p>While here he won the heart of the orphan girl, Elvira P. Mills, who
-was living with her uncle, Sylvester Hulet. But she hesitated about
-marrying a gentile. October 3, 1839, however, she yielded, and they
-were married in Father Elisha Whiting's home, at the Morley Settlement
-by Elder Lyman Wight. </p>
-<p>The two newly weds, on October 6, 1839, drove into Nauvoo twenty miles
-away, and Orville S. Cox was baptized by the Prophet Joseph Smith. He
-went a gentile and returned a full-fledged Mormon, so short a time it
-takes a woman to make a convert. He was a faithful L.D.S., full of love
-and zeal. He was a member of the famous brass band of the Nauvoo
-Legion. When the Prophet and his brother were killed, none mourned
-more sincerely than he. He assisted those more helpless or destitute
-in the migration from Nauvoo. His stacks of grain were burned at the
-Morley settlement by the robbers, and they fled to the City of Nauvoo,
-he with his wife and two children—the oldest child had died when an
-infant as a result of its mother having chills and fever, and from
-exposure resulting from mobbers' violence. </p>
-<p>He attended the meeting where Sidney Rigdon asked the Saints to
-appoint him as guardian, and where Brigham Young claimed that the
-Twelve Apostles were the ordained leaders; and many times thereafter
-he testified that he saw Brigham Young changed to appear like Joseph
-and heard his voice take on the Prophet's tone. And after that
-manifestation he never doubted for a moment that the rightful
-leadership of the Church was vested in the twelve, with Brigham Young
-at their head. He remained in Nauvoo till almost the last departed. He
-assisted Browning in transforming the old rusty steamer shafts into
-cannons that were so effectually used by Daniel H. Wells at the Battle
-of Nauvoo. </p>
-<p>Leaving Nauvoo with the last of the Mormon exiles, he crossed Iowa and
-settled at Pisgah, where he served as counselor to Lorenzo Snow,
-President at Mt. Pisgah. In his devoted attachment to Lorenzo Snow, he
-was an enthusiast; also to Father Morley and he would follow their
-leadership anywhere. Orville and Elvira had their two children, Almer
-and Adelia. </p>
-<p>An incident that illustrated the pioneer life of 1845-6 is told in the
-story of the "Last Match." In the winter of 1845-6 Orville S. Cox and
-two Whiting boys, cousins of Elvira, went from Pisgah with ox teams
-and wagons down into Missouri with a load of chairs to sell. Whitings
-had a shop in which they manufactured chairs. Being successful in
-disposing of their chairs, and securing loads of bacon and corn, they
-were almost home when an Iowa blizzard, or hurricane, or cyclone, or
-all in one, struck them. Clouds and Egyptian darkness settled suddenly
-around them. They had not modern "tornado cellars" to flee into and no
-manner of shelter of any kind. The cold was intense; the wind came
-from every direction; they were all skilled backwoodsmen and knew they
-were very close to their homes; but they also knew that they were
-hopelessly lost in that swirling wind and those black clouds of snow.
-They and their oxen were freezing, and their only hope of life was in
-making a fire and camping where they were. Everything was wet and
-under the snow, and an arctic wind in the fierceness of unclaimed
-violence was raging around them. At first, they unyoked the oxen that
-they might find some sort of shelter for themselves. Then with
-frost-bitten fingers they sought in the darkness and storm for dry
-fuel. The best they found was damp and poor enough—and now for a
-match. Only three in the crowd, and no such matches as we have in
-these days either. Inside a large wooden bucket in which they fed
-grain, they carefully laid their kindling. Then turning another bucket
-over it to keep out of the falling snow, and hugging close over to
-keep the wind off, they lifted the top bucket a little and one of the
-Whiting boys struck a precious match. It flickered, blazed a moment
-against the kindling and was puffed out by a draft of wind. Another
-match was taken, and it died almost before it flared. Only one match
-remained to save three men from certain death. Their fingers were so
-numb they could not feel, and every minute increased their numbness.
-"Let Orville Try; he is steadier than we", they said. So Orville,
-keenly sensing his responsibility, took the tiny splinter of wood and
-struck the spark; it caught, it blazed and the fire lived and grew. </p>
-<p>Now they were in the woods and the fuel was plentiful and soon a
-roaring blaze was swirling upward. The cattle came near, and although
-their noses and feet were frozen, their feet grew new hoofs and their
-noses healed of frosted cracks. When the storm broke and light
-appeared, they found themselves only a few rocks from their home
-fences. </p>
-<p>For a good reason, Orville was not in the Battalion draft. The Whiting
-boys, Sylvester Hulet, and Amos Cox were. But Orville was very busy
-manufacturing wagons. It was told of him that he found a linch pin and
-said, "I'll just make a wagon to fit that pin". He prepared as good
-and serviceable an outfit as his limited means would allow for the
-long dreary journey to the mountains. Two home made wagons, without
-brakes—brakes were not needed on the eastern end of the journey—two
-yoke of oxen, three yoke of cows, a box of chickens on the back of a
-wagon, a wife and two children, with bedding and food, was the outfit
-that started across the plains the last of June 1847, singing the song
-"In the spring we'll take our journey. All to cross the grassy
-plains." He travelled in the hundred of Charles C. Rich, known as the
-Artillery Company. Cox was captain of one of the tens. Oh! the
-seemingly endless level prairie! The monotony was terribly wearing.
-When Independence Rock was sighted, and again when Chimney Rock was
-sighted, it was wonderful relief. Great land marks they were, in that
-unsettled country. Now they were sure they were approaching the Rocky
-Mountains, especially the children longed for that goal. </p>
-<p>One evening at camping time, 4:00 P.M., a herd of buffalo were sighted
-about two miles away. The people were very hungry for a piece of fresh
-beef, so Father and one companion shouldered their guns, snatched
-their percussion caps and powder horns, and started to "try a hunter's
-luck." About sunset they got their steak, a generous load of the best
-cuts from the Buffalo, and started for camp. On and on they went. What
-they thought was a two mile stretch lengthened and lengthened, and
-their loads of meat grew heavier and heavier. They began to think they
-were lost; but the camp fires and stars told them they were going in
-the right direction. Finally they decided to fire their guns. This
-they did, and it filled the camp with alarm, least the hunters were in
-danger. Two or three men rushed away in the darkness to give aid, and
-they fired their guns to locate the hunters. Several shots brought
-them together. "Help us with this grub pile", they said. Help was
-given. They reached the camp at 11:00 o'clock. It must have been six
-miles or perhaps ten to the herd of buffalo. They were now in the
-clear air of the up-lands and could see much farther than they had
-been able to see in the Mississippi valley. </p>
-<p>The next morning all in the camp had a feast of fresh meat. </p>
-<p>After leaving the Platte River, while travelling along the sweet Water
-River, the company met General Kearney and his company of Battalion
-scouts with their illustrious prisoner, the great path-finder
-Freemont. </p>
-<p>(When California was freed from Mexican rule, Freemont and his little
-band, who had helped to free it, were greatly rejoiced; and in their
-enthusiasm his followers proclaimed Freemont governor. General Kearney
-arrived and expected to be governor by right of his generalship. He
-was very angry and had Freemont arrested and sent to Washington.) </p>
-<p>With Freemont's guards were Sylvester Hulet, Elvira's Uncle, and Amos
-Cox. They had traveled many weary months in an unknown, lonely
-country; and C.C. Riche's company were also travel weary. To thus meet
-relatives so unexpectedly was a joy unspeakable to both parties. </p>
-<p>Now the battalion men heard from their families left in Iowa, for the
-first time in more than a year. And tears of joy and sorrow were
-freely mingled. A daughter of Amos had died. Sylvester's wife had gone
-to New York where the Whitmer's and her father and brothers lived; so
-he decided to return to the Rocky Mountains with the pioneers, and
-Kearney gave him his discharge. Amos Cox continued with the prisoner
-to Fort Leavenworth, where he received his honorable discharge, and
-then went to his weary waiting family in Iowa. </p>
-<p>The pioneering company continued on westward. At Green River, near
-Bridger's Station, they met pioneers who had reached Great Salt Lake
-Valley and made a start toward a new home; and were now returning to
-the camps in Iowa, with more definite knowledge and instructions to
-impart to those who were to come to the mountains next year. They told
-Rich's company many things regarding the way that lay before them, and
-it was a great relief to know that they were nearing their
-destination. </p>
-<p>From now on the mountains were on every side; frowning cliffs looked
-ready to fall on and crush the poor foot-sore travelers; for people
-raised on the plains are apt to have a shuddering of such sights. C.C.
-Riche's artillery company rolled into the valley of the great Salt
-Lake. They were only two or three days behind Jedediah M. Grant's
-company of one hundred wagons. </p>
-<p>Being expert in handling lumber, Cox was immediately sent into the
-canyon for logs. Houses must now be built. Among other timbers, he
-brought down a magnificent specimen of a pine for a "Liberty Pole",
-which he assisted in raising on Pioneer Square. It was the first pole
-to carry the stars and stripes in the city. One had been raised on
-Ensign Peak before. They wintered in Salt Lake Valley. There another
-son, Orville M., was born November 29, 1847. </p>
-<p>Very early in the spring of 1848 father moved from the Adobe Fort with
-his wife and three children, and began farming in Sessionsville, Now
-Bountiful; He was the first bishop of the ward. There they had the
-famous experience with the crickets. He devised the broad paddles, as
-well as the oft mentioned methods, to try to exterminate them; and
-then came the Gulls. He raised a crop in '48 and '49 there; also he
-dug the first well in Bountiful, and struck water so suddenly as to be
-drowned by it before he could be hauled up. In the fall of '49 he was
-called to go with "Father" Morley's company to colonize the valley of
-Sanpitch. </p>
-<p>He arrived at the future site of Manti November 19, 1849. The journey
-from Salt Lake City to the Sanpete Valley occupied one month, breaking
-new roads, fixing fords, and building dug-ways. The forty families
-worked industriously, sometimes only movin' forward two or three
-miles. One six mile stretch in Salt Creek Canyon occupied them a whole
-week. The only settlement between Salt Lake and Manti was Provo,
-consisting of a little fort of green cottonwood logs. </p>
-<p>After getting through Salt Creek Canyon in two weeks, they worked to
-their upmost strength for it began snowing on them there; and it was
-far from being a desirable winter's home. That winter was one of the
-hardest with the heaviest snow fall for many succeeding years.
-Arriving at their destination, camp was made by the Morley's company
-on the south side of Temple Hill which was a sheltered spot. Now they
-must do their upmost in canyons, raising log cabins, sowing lumber on
-the saw pit, which was the most primitive of saw mills. </p>
-<p>Orville was an expert at hewing and squaring the logs with his ax, and
-making everything as comfortable as possible in their home. All winter
-long they had to help the cattle find feed by shovelling snow in the
-meadows, as the snow lay four feet deep. It was May before the snow
-was gone so that the men could begin to clear the ground and begin
-their farming. Then there came irrigating ditches to dig and the usual
-labor of clearing, plowing, and planting. </p>
-<p>Between their individual duties, they found time to build log school,
-and a bowery, and then a meeting house. They felt that it was quite
-commodious. Here in the long evenings of the winter of 1850-51 Cox
-taught a singing and dancing school. Sarah Potty was the first school
-of Ma'am. In the winter of 1850-51, school was taught by Jesse W. Fox.
-In 1850 he was elected Alderman. </p>
-<p>O.S. Cox married Mary Allen about 1854; he served many years as the
-first counselor to Bishop Lowry; and he was captain of the Militia. He
-was very energetic in the performance of his duties, especially
-through the protracted period of the Walker war. He married Eliza
-Losee about 1857-59. He served under Major Higgins, and old Battalion
-veteran. </p>
-<p>To be sure, nobody appreciated more than he did a liberty pole, and all
-that it typified, so he was commissioned to find one at the earliest
-convenient moment for Manti; this he did in 1850. Ten years he labored
-faithfully for the upbuilding of Manti, and then like Boon and
-Crockett, "he wanted more elbow room" and moved to Fairview, Sanpete
-County. He also moved part of his family to Gunnison (Hog Wallow, it
-was called then) and raised two crops there. In February 1864, he
-moved part of his family to Glenwood, built a cabin there and raised a
-crop. He sold out and moved elsewhere to engineer ditches. He
-engineered over forty ditches in Utah and Nevada, as near as his
-children can remember in 1910, as well as doing all other kinds of
-pioneer work. </p>
-<p>In 1865 he was advised by Lorenzo Snow to move to the Muddy, a branch
-of the Rio Virgin, a stream running through Moappa Valley, to assist
-in surveying and making irrigation ditches there. The soil was very
-rich, but there was so much quick sand that it made it almost
-impossible to build a dam that hold or to irrigate without washing
-away the soil. So he went south into southeastern Nevada. He thought
-that was the route the saints would travel going back to Jackson
-County, so he was that much nearer the final home. He labored here for
-six years, and engineered a number of dams that would hold against the
-floods and treachery of quicksand. They had only poor home made plows
-and a few other tools to work with, and no cement or modern building
-material. He also built cabins and cleared and tilled the land there.
-In clearing the land, the "Mesquite" brush root was the hardest
-digging they encountered. St. Thomas, St. Joseph and Overton, the 3
-towns in the valley were partly of his building. The first trip, he
-took with him his third wife, Eliza, and her one child, a little two
-year old girl; and Walter, a 14 year old son of the first wife,
-Elvira. The following year, after crops were in and the spring work
-done, he returned to Fairview after another section of his
-family—Mary, the second wife, and her five children. From that time
-on O.S. Cox's life is a volume of tragedy and hardship. The life in
-the burning desert is always more or less unpleasant, and pioneering
-is excessively hard. And he was past fifty years old. </p>
-<p>During his absence, Eliza's little girl Lucinda, took her little pail
-to the creek to get some water; the quicksand caused her to slip and
-she was drowned. They took her out not very far from down the stream,
-but could not resuscitate her. The poor mother, among strangers and
-homesick, was unconsolable in her sorrow. Walter, seeing his little
-pet companion stricken in all her robust beauty and health, was wild
-with grief, and could not be comforted. After a time the neighbors
-concluded that Walter would die if some change did not come to get him
-to sleep and eat. They told Eliza of their fears for him, and so the
-disconsolate mother tried to hide her own grief and comfort him. It is
-said it was the saddest thing the woman there ever saw, to see the
-brave mother and the boy trying to comfort each other in their
-loneliness. Fifty years later, it was a nightmare to Walt. </p>
-<p>Almer, Laun and Walt all went to the Muddy in 1867, the year Mary was
-moved. In 1868 Philmon, fifth son of Elvira, a very promising lad of
-thirteen, died of appendicitis, at that time called inflammation of
-the bowels. Then Mary lost a little daughter, Lucy for whom she
-grieved many years. </p>
-<p>Financially the prospects were more promising than ever before. They
-had planted a large orchard, and a vineyard that was just coming into
-bearing. Then a new line was run between the states of Utah and
-Nevada, which gave this section to Nevada, and Nevada demanded back
-taxes; and they amounted to more than their farms and houses were
-worth. So Brigham Young said, "Come home to Utah." They came. </p>
-<p>Elvira, with Orville a grown son, Walter 17, Tryphena, Amasa and
-Euphrasia, returned to the old home in Fairview, leaving all of their
-beautiful peach orchards and vineyards, fields of cotton, cane, wheat
-and the comfortable houses in the most fertile of lands, which they
-had subdued and made to "Blossom as the Rose" by seven long years of
-toil and privation. They rendered absolute obedience to their great
-leader; and so they hitched up their teams, took their most choice
-belongings, and wended their way back to Utah, leaving their
-settlement and farms to pay Nevada the back taxes it had demanded. </p>
-<p>One company which had thoroughly learned the trick of building a dam
-in quick sand of the desert, stopped at an abandoned settlement in
-Long Valley, Kane County. O.S. Cox and sons began the engineering of
-irrigation canals and dams, and so on, as they had cleaned and
-repaired the deserted cabins, so that they offered partial shelter
-from the February storms. The people named this town Mt. Carmel. </p>
-<p>When the former settlers learned that they had builded dams that would
-stand, they came back and said, "Get Out, this is ours," So the weary
-pioneers moved again, this time only a few miles farther up the valley
-into a pleasant narrow cove, and went to work to build more dams, more
-ditches and more cabins. In one place the water had to be carried
-across a gulley, and it gave more trouble than all the rest of the
-canal. After a while Cox, without comment or consultation, went into
-the timber and found a very large log and felled it, made of it a huge
-trough, placed it across the gully and it reached far enough to secure
-a solid bed above the quicksand. Thirty years later, this "Cox Trough"
-was still doing successful service as a flume. </p>
-<p>In 1875, when Brigham strongly taught the principle of Cooperation,
-this company of saints were organized by unanimous consent into the
-united order of Enoch, and named their town Orderville. Their little
-property, mostly cattle, horses and wagons, were owned jointly. Twelve
-years father labored joyously and unselfishly in the "Order". The town
-grew and thrived; the arts, schools and trades were remarkably well
-represented by the young. Prosperity and a measure of plenty was
-there, in spite of the fact that there were more infirm people in that
-ward than any ward in the church. </p>
-<p>Then dissatisfaction and disunion came, and the "Order" broke up.
-There was not a great deal of property to divide, although some people
-came out with more property with others, according to the amount they
-consecrated in. Mary and Eliza, father's second and third wives, each
-received a team and wagon. Mary and her family located in Huntington,
-Emery County, Eliza and her family in Tropic, Garfield County. Father
-well along in years, and broken in health, could do little more than
-advise his sons. Eliza was dying of cancer. In 1886 Orville S. Cox
-came to Fairview to the best-provided for branch of his family. One
-year he remained an invalid, and on July 4, 1888 he laid his exhausted
-body down to rest. The passing was quiet and peaceful. His two wives
-Elvira and Mary and many of his descendants were with him at the last. </p>
-<p>The following are some of the thriving towns O.S. Cox assisted in
-founding: Lima, Ill.; Pisgah, Iowa; Salt Lake City, Bountiful, Manti,
-Gunnuson, Fairview, Glenwood of Utah; St. Thomas, St. Joseph, Overton
-of Nevada; Mt. Carmel, Orderville and Tropic of Utah. </p>
-<p>If man ever earned his salvation, surely O.S. Cox did. Always found in
-the van where the hardest work was to be done, and if he advanced the
-cause one iota, no matter at what loss, or cost to himself, he
-considered he had been eminently successful. Never was there a murmur
-from him. </p>
-<p>To illustrate the ingenuity of O.S. Cox's ditch making, here is the
-story of the Pig Plow as told by an old settler of Fairview, Pappas
-Brady. </p>
-<p>"When the ditch was first laid out that was afterwards called "City
-Ditch", every man and boy was called on to come and work on it every
-day til it would carry water. This was in the spring, and it had to be
-finished before the fields were ready to be plowed and planted. The
-men turned out well with teams and plows, picks and crow bars and
-shovels. There was a rocky point at the head of the ditch to be ut
-through, and it was hard pan, about like cement. Couldn't be touched
-by plow, no siree; now more than nothing. We was just prying the
-gravel loose with picks and crowbars, and looked like it would take us
-weeks to do six rods. Yes, six weeks. Cox looked at us working and
-sweating, and never offered to lift a finger. No sir, never done a
-tap; just looked and then without saying a word, he turned around and
-walked off. Yes, sir, walked off! Well of all the mad bunch of men you
-ever saw I guess he was about the maddest. Of course, we didn't swear;
-we was Mormons and the Bishop was there, but we watched him go and one
-of the men says, "Well, I didn't think Cox was that kind of a feller."
-His going discouraged the rest of us, just took the heart out of us.
-But of course we plugged away pretendin' to work the rest of the day,
-and dragged back the next morning." </p>
-<p>"We weren't near all there when here came Cox. I don't just remember
-whether it was four yoke of oxen or six or eight, for I was just a
-boy, but it was a long string and they was every one of a good pulling
-ox. And they was hitched on to a plow a plumb new kind, yes sir, a new
-kind of plow. It was a great big pitch pine log, about fourteen feet
-long, and may have been eighteen, with a limb stickin' down like as if
-my arm and hand was the log and my thumb the limb; he had bored a hole
-through the log, and put a crow bar down in front of the knob; and
-cross ways along the log back of the limb he bored holes and put stout
-oak sticks through spikes. They were the plow handles; and he had
-eight man got ahold of them handles find hold the plow level and he
-loaded a bunch of men along on that log, and then he spoke to his
-oxen." </p>
-<p>"Great Scott, ye oter seen the gravel fly, and ye oter heard us
-fellers laugh and holler! Well, sir, he plowed up and down that ditch
-line four or five times and that ditch was made, practically made. All
-that the rest of us had to do was to shovel out the loose stuff; he
-done more in half a day than all the rest of us could a done in six
-weeks." </p>
-<p>"Why didn't he tell his plans the first thing, so we wouldn't be so
-discouraged, and hate him so? Why, cause he knew it wouldn't do a
-might of good to talk. He wasn't the Bishop; and even if he had been,
-plans like that would sure be hooted at by half the fellers. No,
-siree! His way was the best when a bunch of men and a thing a workin'
-they see believe; yes, sir, seein' is believin." </p>
-<blockquote><p>The Pioneer Mother </p>
-<p> Upon a jolting wagon sent she rode
-<br> Across the trackless prairie to the west,
-<br> Or trudged behind the oxen with a goad,
-<br> A sleeping child clasped tightly to her breast,
-<br> Frail flesh rebelling, but spirit never—
-<br> What tales the dark could tell of woman's tears!!—
-<br> Her bravery incentive to endeavor;
-<br> Her laughter spurring strong men past their fears. </p>
-<p> O to her valor and her comeliness
-<br> A commonwealth today owes its white domes
-<br> Of State, its fields, its highways, and its homes—
-<br> Its cities wrested from the wilderness.
-<br> Its bones in memory above the hand
-<br> That gentled, woman-wise, a savage land. </p>
-<p>—Ethol Romig Fuller </p></blockquote>
-
-
-<h3>Transcriber's Note</h3>
-
-<p>The original pamphlet contains many images that were omitted in this
-electronic version. Scans of the original work can be found at
-<A HREF="https://archive.org/details/biographicalsket00sidw">archive.org</A>. The poem "The
-Pioneer Mother," originally presented in a sidebar, has been moved
-to the end of the work for improved readability on typical e-reader
-devices.</p>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
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+ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> + +<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> + +<title> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Biographical Sketch of Orville Southerland Cox, by Adelia B. Cox Sidwell +</title> +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg"> +<style TYPE="text/css"> +body { color: Black; background: White; margin-right: 10%; margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: justify } + +h1 { text-align: center } + +h2 { text-align: center; padding-top: 15%; } + +h3 { text-align: center } + +h4 { text-align: center } + +p.chapterHeading { margin-right: 20%; margin-left: 20%} + +img {display: block; margin-left: auto; + margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 1%; margin-right: auto; } + +.pagenum { position: absolute; left: 1%; font-size: 95%; text-align: left; text-indent: 0; + font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-variant: normal; } + +.centered {text-align: center} + +sup { font-size: 60%} + +.sidenote { right: 0%; font-size: 80%; text-align: right; text-indent: 0%; width: 17%; + float: right; clear: right; padding-right: 0%; padding-left: 1%; padding-top: 1%; + padding-bottom: 1%; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-variant: normal; } +</style> + +</head> + +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 50322 ***</div> + +<h1>Biographical Sketch of Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of 1847</h1> +<br><p class="centered">The Pioneer Spirit</p> +<p class="centered">The Pioneer Spirit that mastered things +<br> And Broke the virgin sod, +<br> That conquered savages and kings, +<br> And only bowed to God. +<br> The Strength of mind and strength of soul— +<br> The will to do or die, +<br> That sets its heart upon a goal, +<br> And made it far or high—</p> +<p class="centered">—Clarence Hawkes</p> +<h3>Orville Southerland Cox</h3> +<p>Biographical sketch of Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of 1847, +partly from a sketch written by Adelia B. Cox Sidwell for the +"Daughters of the Pioneers", Manti, Utah, 1913. </p> +<p>Orville S. Cox, was born in Plymouth, N.Y. November 25, 1814. He was +one of a family of 12 children, ten of whom reached maturity. His +father died when he was about fifteen years old. And he was then +"bound out"; apprenticed to learn the trade of a blacksmith under a +deacon Jones, who was considered an excellent man as he was a pillar +of the church. The agreement was that he was to work obediently until +twenty one and that Jones as to give him board and clothes, three +months of school each winter, and teach him the trade of +blacksmithing. No schooling was given or allowed, and one pair of +jeans pants was all the clothing he received during the first three +years of his apprenticeship, and his food was rather limited too. The +women folks ran a dairy, but the boy was never allowed a drink of +milk, of which he was very fond because the Mrs. said "it made too big +a hole in the cheese." He was indeed a poor little bondsman, receiving +plenty of abusive treatment. As to teaching him the trade, he was kept +blowing the bellows and using the tongs and heavy sledge. But the +deacon sometimes went to distant places and then the boy secretly used +the tools and practiced doing the things his keen eyes had watched his +master do. During some of these hours of freedom, he made himself a +pair of skates from pieces of broken nails he gathered carefully and +saved. </p> +<p>Also, he straightened a discarded gun barrel and made a hammer, +trigger, sights, etc, to it, so that he had an effective weapon. These +things he had to keep hidden from the eyes of his master and +associates, but secretly he had great joy in his possessions and once +in a while found a little time to use them. </p> +<p>Occasionally the monotony at the bellows and with the tongs and +sledge—was broken in other ways;—for example—at one time oxen were +brought to the shop to be shod that had extremely hard hoofs, called +"glassy hoofs". Whenever Deacon undertook to drive a nail in, it bent. +Cox straightened nails over and over, as nails were precious articles +in those days and must not be discarded because they were bent. After +a while, the boy said "let me". And he shod the oxen without a bending +a single nail; And thereafter Cox shod the oxen, one and all that came +to the shop. </p> +<p>One other pleasant duty was his: that of burning charcoal, as coal was +then undiscovered. He learned much of the trade of the woodman while +attending to the pits in the depth of the might New York Forests, as +well as having an opportunity to use his skates and gun a little. </p> +<p>He acquired the cognoman of "Deek" among his associates, and when he +had worked for something over three years, he came to the conclusion +that was all he ever would acquire, along with harsh treatment; so +during one of the Deacon's visits to a distant parish, he gathered +together his few belongings and a lunch, between two days, shouldered +his home made gun and "hit the trail for the tall timber", that being +the route on which he was least apt to be discovered. He made his way +toward the Susquehannah river. First he reached the Tioga River, which +was a branch of the Susquehannah. He began reconnoitering for a means +of crossing or floating down the river and soon discovered a log +canoe, "dug-out" as it was called, frozen in the mud. He decided to +confiscate it as "contraband of war" and pried it up, launched it, and +was soon floating and paddling in it down toward the junction of the +Tioga and the Susquehannah. </p> +<p>Shortly he felt his tired feet being submerged in cold water. Stooping +to investigate, he found that the log was leaky and rapidly filling +with water. He also found an old woolen firkin, a small barrel, that +he at once began making use of, bailing the water, alternately +paddeling, steering and bailing. He continued down the stream, keeping +near the shore as possible, in case the old dug-out should get the +best of him. The second day he heard "Hello, there, will you take a +passenger?" from a man on shore. "Yes, if you'll help bail, steer, and +row." "Barkis is willin", came the reply, so there were two in the log +canoe. </p> +<p>Then they made better time. Nearing the confluence of the rivers, they +saw a boat preparing to leave the dock for a trip up the Susquehannah, +a primitive stern wheel packet of those early days (1831). He and his +passenger applied themselves to their paddling, bailing and steering, +signalling the boat to wait; just as she started he drew near enough +to leap from the dug-out to her deck. </p> +<p>A free boy! For now he was sure pursuit would not overtake him. His +passenger called "What shall I do with this canoe?" "Keep her or let +her float" shouted Cox. (If the owner of that dug-out will send in his +bill for damages, O.S. Cox's children will cheerfully settle.) As for +food on this trip with the canoe, game was plentiful and he was a good +shot. While on this boat, he must have worked his passage, for he had +no money. </p> +<p>On board that boat with a Cargo of Southern Produce, he, for the first +time in his life, saw an orange. He remained on this little river +packet some distance up the river, then lended and found lucrative +employment at lumbering and logging, and sometimes at the blacksmith's +forge. Soon he had the good luck to find his two brothers, Walter and +Augustus, rafting logs down the river. He was an expert at this +himself. </p> +<p>Now he learned that his mother, and her younger children, Amos, +Harriet, Mary and Jonathan had gone to Ohio under the care of his +older brother, William U., via the great world famous Erie Canal; (at +that time the largest canal in the world.) So by slow degrees and hard +work he began to work his way toward Ohio. Usually he worked for +lumber companies. His two brothers did likewise. They literally walked +wall the way through the forests, the whole length of the state of New +York. Finally they were united as a family in Nelson, Portage Co. +Ohio, the former home of his future wife, Elvira, although she was at +that time an emigrant in Missouri. The eight Cox boys continued their +westward course; some of them reached California during the gold +stampede. Charles B. Cox was elected Senator from Santa Rosa Company +for a number of terms. William U. had put his property in a concern +called the Phalanx and was defrauded by the officers of every cent and +left in debt $3000.00, an enormous sum for those days. Orville's +mother Lucinda, and her family went to Missouri. Walter had receive +the gospel in Ohio previously. Orville heard terrible stories of the +outlawry of those "awful Mormons"; but he became personally acquainted +with some (Among them a Sylvester Hulet). He decided they were sinned +against. He lived in Jackson County for a time, and ever after Jackson +County Missouri was the goal of his ambition; He believed to his dying +day that he should one day return to that favored spot. </p> +<p>Orville met and loved Elvira in Far West, but was not baptized. He +said he didn't propose to turn Mormon to procure a wife. When the +Saints were driven from Missouri, he located near Lima, Illinois, with +a group of Mormons and helped build the Morley settlement. </p> +<p>Nearing his 24th birthday, he was a thorough frontiersman, forester, +lumberman, a splendid blacksmith, a natural born engineer; in short a +genius and an all around good fellow. He was six feet in his socks and +heavy proportionately. </p> +<p>While here he won the heart of the orphan girl, Elvira P. Mills, who +was living with her uncle, Sylvester Hulet. But she hesitated about +marrying a gentile. October 3, 1839, however, she yielded, and they +were married in Father Elisha Whiting's home, at the Morley Settlement +by Elder Lyman Wight. </p> +<p>The two newly weds, on October 6, 1839, drove into Nauvoo twenty miles +away, and Orville S. Cox was baptized by the Prophet Joseph Smith. He +went a gentile and returned a full-fledged Mormon, so short a time it +takes a woman to make a convert. He was a faithful L.D.S., full of love +and zeal. He was a member of the famous brass band of the Nauvoo +Legion. When the Prophet and his brother were killed, none mourned +more sincerely than he. He assisted those more helpless or destitute +in the migration from Nauvoo. His stacks of grain were burned at the +Morley settlement by the robbers, and they fled to the City of Nauvoo, +he with his wife and two children—the oldest child had died when an +infant as a result of its mother having chills and fever, and from +exposure resulting from mobbers' violence. </p> +<p>He attended the meeting where Sidney Rigdon asked the Saints to +appoint him as guardian, and where Brigham Young claimed that the +Twelve Apostles were the ordained leaders; and many times thereafter +he testified that he saw Brigham Young changed to appear like Joseph +and heard his voice take on the Prophet's tone. And after that +manifestation he never doubted for a moment that the rightful +leadership of the Church was vested in the twelve, with Brigham Young +at their head. He remained in Nauvoo till almost the last departed. He +assisted Browning in transforming the old rusty steamer shafts into +cannons that were so effectually used by Daniel H. Wells at the Battle +of Nauvoo. </p> +<p>Leaving Nauvoo with the last of the Mormon exiles, he crossed Iowa and +settled at Pisgah, where he served as counselor to Lorenzo Snow, +President at Mt. Pisgah. In his devoted attachment to Lorenzo Snow, he +was an enthusiast; also to Father Morley and he would follow their +leadership anywhere. Orville and Elvira had their two children, Almer +and Adelia. </p> +<p>An incident that illustrated the pioneer life of 1845-6 is told in the +story of the "Last Match." In the winter of 1845-6 Orville S. Cox and +two Whiting boys, cousins of Elvira, went from Pisgah with ox teams +and wagons down into Missouri with a load of chairs to sell. Whitings +had a shop in which they manufactured chairs. Being successful in +disposing of their chairs, and securing loads of bacon and corn, they +were almost home when an Iowa blizzard, or hurricane, or cyclone, or +all in one, struck them. Clouds and Egyptian darkness settled suddenly +around them. They had not modern "tornado cellars" to flee into and no +manner of shelter of any kind. The cold was intense; the wind came +from every direction; they were all skilled backwoodsmen and knew they +were very close to their homes; but they also knew that they were +hopelessly lost in that swirling wind and those black clouds of snow. +They and their oxen were freezing, and their only hope of life was in +making a fire and camping where they were. Everything was wet and +under the snow, and an arctic wind in the fierceness of unclaimed +violence was raging around them. At first, they unyoked the oxen that +they might find some sort of shelter for themselves. Then with +frost-bitten fingers they sought in the darkness and storm for dry +fuel. The best they found was damp and poor enough—and now for a +match. Only three in the crowd, and no such matches as we have in +these days either. Inside a large wooden bucket in which they fed +grain, they carefully laid their kindling. Then turning another bucket +over it to keep out of the falling snow, and hugging close over to +keep the wind off, they lifted the top bucket a little and one of the +Whiting boys struck a precious match. It flickered, blazed a moment +against the kindling and was puffed out by a draft of wind. Another +match was taken, and it died almost before it flared. Only one match +remained to save three men from certain death. Their fingers were so +numb they could not feel, and every minute increased their numbness. +"Let Orville Try; he is steadier than we", they said. So Orville, +keenly sensing his responsibility, took the tiny splinter of wood and +struck the spark; it caught, it blazed and the fire lived and grew. </p> +<p>Now they were in the woods and the fuel was plentiful and soon a +roaring blaze was swirling upward. The cattle came near, and although +their noses and feet were frozen, their feet grew new hoofs and their +noses healed of frosted cracks. When the storm broke and light +appeared, they found themselves only a few rocks from their home +fences. </p> +<p>For a good reason, Orville was not in the Battalion draft. The Whiting +boys, Sylvester Hulet, and Amos Cox were. But Orville was very busy +manufacturing wagons. It was told of him that he found a linch pin and +said, "I'll just make a wagon to fit that pin". He prepared as good +and serviceable an outfit as his limited means would allow for the +long dreary journey to the mountains. Two home made wagons, without +brakes—brakes were not needed on the eastern end of the journey—two +yoke of oxen, three yoke of cows, a box of chickens on the back of a +wagon, a wife and two children, with bedding and food, was the outfit +that started across the plains the last of June 1847, singing the song +"In the spring we'll take our journey. All to cross the grassy +plains." He travelled in the hundred of Charles C. Rich, known as the +Artillery Company. Cox was captain of one of the tens. Oh! the +seemingly endless level prairie! The monotony was terribly wearing. +When Independence Rock was sighted, and again when Chimney Rock was +sighted, it was wonderful relief. Great land marks they were, in that +unsettled country. Now they were sure they were approaching the Rocky +Mountains, especially the children longed for that goal. </p> +<p>One evening at camping time, 4:00 P.M., a herd of buffalo were sighted +about two miles away. The people were very hungry for a piece of fresh +beef, so Father and one companion shouldered their guns, snatched +their percussion caps and powder horns, and started to "try a hunter's +luck." About sunset they got their steak, a generous load of the best +cuts from the Buffalo, and started for camp. On and on they went. What +they thought was a two mile stretch lengthened and lengthened, and +their loads of meat grew heavier and heavier. They began to think they +were lost; but the camp fires and stars told them they were going in +the right direction. Finally they decided to fire their guns. This +they did, and it filled the camp with alarm, least the hunters were in +danger. Two or three men rushed away in the darkness to give aid, and +they fired their guns to locate the hunters. Several shots brought +them together. "Help us with this grub pile", they said. Help was +given. They reached the camp at 11:00 o'clock. It must have been six +miles or perhaps ten to the herd of buffalo. They were now in the +clear air of the up-lands and could see much farther than they had +been able to see in the Mississippi valley. </p> +<p>The next morning all in the camp had a feast of fresh meat. </p> +<p>After leaving the Platte River, while travelling along the sweet Water +River, the company met General Kearney and his company of Battalion +scouts with their illustrious prisoner, the great path-finder +Freemont. </p> +<p>(When California was freed from Mexican rule, Freemont and his little +band, who had helped to free it, were greatly rejoiced; and in their +enthusiasm his followers proclaimed Freemont governor. General Kearney +arrived and expected to be governor by right of his generalship. He +was very angry and had Freemont arrested and sent to Washington.) </p> +<p>With Freemont's guards were Sylvester Hulet, Elvira's Uncle, and Amos +Cox. They had traveled many weary months in an unknown, lonely +country; and C.C. Riche's company were also travel weary. To thus meet +relatives so unexpectedly was a joy unspeakable to both parties. </p> +<p>Now the battalion men heard from their families left in Iowa, for the +first time in more than a year. And tears of joy and sorrow were +freely mingled. A daughter of Amos had died. Sylvester's wife had gone +to New York where the Whitmer's and her father and brothers lived; so +he decided to return to the Rocky Mountains with the pioneers, and +Kearney gave him his discharge. Amos Cox continued with the prisoner +to Fort Leavenworth, where he received his honorable discharge, and +then went to his weary waiting family in Iowa. </p> +<p>The pioneering company continued on westward. At Green River, near +Bridger's Station, they met pioneers who had reached Great Salt Lake +Valley and made a start toward a new home; and were now returning to +the camps in Iowa, with more definite knowledge and instructions to +impart to those who were to come to the mountains next year. They told +Rich's company many things regarding the way that lay before them, and +it was a great relief to know that they were nearing their +destination. </p> +<p>From now on the mountains were on every side; frowning cliffs looked +ready to fall on and crush the poor foot-sore travelers; for people +raised on the plains are apt to have a shuddering of such sights. C.C. +Riche's artillery company rolled into the valley of the great Salt +Lake. They were only two or three days behind Jedediah M. Grant's +company of one hundred wagons. </p> +<p>Being expert in handling lumber, Cox was immediately sent into the +canyon for logs. Houses must now be built. Among other timbers, he +brought down a magnificent specimen of a pine for a "Liberty Pole", +which he assisted in raising on Pioneer Square. It was the first pole +to carry the stars and stripes in the city. One had been raised on +Ensign Peak before. They wintered in Salt Lake Valley. There another +son, Orville M., was born November 29, 1847. </p> +<p>Very early in the spring of 1848 father moved from the Adobe Fort with +his wife and three children, and began farming in Sessionsville, Now +Bountiful; He was the first bishop of the ward. There they had the +famous experience with the crickets. He devised the broad paddles, as +well as the oft mentioned methods, to try to exterminate them; and +then came the Gulls. He raised a crop in '48 and '49 there; also he +dug the first well in Bountiful, and struck water so suddenly as to be +drowned by it before he could be hauled up. In the fall of '49 he was +called to go with "Father" Morley's company to colonize the valley of +Sanpitch. </p> +<p>He arrived at the future site of Manti November 19, 1849. The journey +from Salt Lake City to the Sanpete Valley occupied one month, breaking +new roads, fixing fords, and building dug-ways. The forty families +worked industriously, sometimes only movin' forward two or three +miles. One six mile stretch in Salt Creek Canyon occupied them a whole +week. The only settlement between Salt Lake and Manti was Provo, +consisting of a little fort of green cottonwood logs. </p> +<p>After getting through Salt Creek Canyon in two weeks, they worked to +their upmost strength for it began snowing on them there; and it was +far from being a desirable winter's home. That winter was one of the +hardest with the heaviest snow fall for many succeeding years. +Arriving at their destination, camp was made by the Morley's company +on the south side of Temple Hill which was a sheltered spot. Now they +must do their upmost in canyons, raising log cabins, sowing lumber on +the saw pit, which was the most primitive of saw mills. </p> +<p>Orville was an expert at hewing and squaring the logs with his ax, and +making everything as comfortable as possible in their home. All winter +long they had to help the cattle find feed by shovelling snow in the +meadows, as the snow lay four feet deep. It was May before the snow +was gone so that the men could begin to clear the ground and begin +their farming. Then there came irrigating ditches to dig and the usual +labor of clearing, plowing, and planting. </p> +<p>Between their individual duties, they found time to build log school, +and a bowery, and then a meeting house. They felt that it was quite +commodious. Here in the long evenings of the winter of 1850-51 Cox +taught a singing and dancing school. Sarah Potty was the first school +of Ma'am. In the winter of 1850-51, school was taught by Jesse W. Fox. +In 1850 he was elected Alderman. </p> +<p>O.S. Cox married Mary Allen about 1854; he served many years as the +first counselor to Bishop Lowry; and he was captain of the Militia. He +was very energetic in the performance of his duties, especially +through the protracted period of the Walker war. He married Eliza +Losee about 1857-59. He served under Major Higgins, and old Battalion +veteran. </p> +<p>To be sure, nobody appreciated more than he did a liberty pole, and all +that it typified, so he was commissioned to find one at the earliest +convenient moment for Manti; this he did in 1850. Ten years he labored +faithfully for the upbuilding of Manti, and then like Boon and +Crockett, "he wanted more elbow room" and moved to Fairview, Sanpete +County. He also moved part of his family to Gunnison (Hog Wallow, it +was called then) and raised two crops there. In February 1864, he +moved part of his family to Glenwood, built a cabin there and raised a +crop. He sold out and moved elsewhere to engineer ditches. He +engineered over forty ditches in Utah and Nevada, as near as his +children can remember in 1910, as well as doing all other kinds of +pioneer work. </p> +<p>In 1865 he was advised by Lorenzo Snow to move to the Muddy, a branch +of the Rio Virgin, a stream running through Moappa Valley, to assist +in surveying and making irrigation ditches there. The soil was very +rich, but there was so much quick sand that it made it almost +impossible to build a dam that hold or to irrigate without washing +away the soil. So he went south into southeastern Nevada. He thought +that was the route the saints would travel going back to Jackson +County, so he was that much nearer the final home. He labored here for +six years, and engineered a number of dams that would hold against the +floods and treachery of quicksand. They had only poor home made plows +and a few other tools to work with, and no cement or modern building +material. He also built cabins and cleared and tilled the land there. +In clearing the land, the "Mesquite" brush root was the hardest +digging they encountered. St. Thomas, St. Joseph and Overton, the 3 +towns in the valley were partly of his building. The first trip, he +took with him his third wife, Eliza, and her one child, a little two +year old girl; and Walter, a 14 year old son of the first wife, +Elvira. The following year, after crops were in and the spring work +done, he returned to Fairview after another section of his +family—Mary, the second wife, and her five children. From that time +on O.S. Cox's life is a volume of tragedy and hardship. The life in +the burning desert is always more or less unpleasant, and pioneering +is excessively hard. And he was past fifty years old. </p> +<p>During his absence, Eliza's little girl Lucinda, took her little pail +to the creek to get some water; the quicksand caused her to slip and +she was drowned. They took her out not very far from down the stream, +but could not resuscitate her. The poor mother, among strangers and +homesick, was unconsolable in her sorrow. Walter, seeing his little +pet companion stricken in all her robust beauty and health, was wild +with grief, and could not be comforted. After a time the neighbors +concluded that Walter would die if some change did not come to get him +to sleep and eat. They told Eliza of their fears for him, and so the +disconsolate mother tried to hide her own grief and comfort him. It is +said it was the saddest thing the woman there ever saw, to see the +brave mother and the boy trying to comfort each other in their +loneliness. Fifty years later, it was a nightmare to Walt. </p> +<p>Almer, Laun and Walt all went to the Muddy in 1867, the year Mary was +moved. In 1868 Philmon, fifth son of Elvira, a very promising lad of +thirteen, died of appendicitis, at that time called inflammation of +the bowels. Then Mary lost a little daughter, Lucy for whom she +grieved many years. </p> +<p>Financially the prospects were more promising than ever before. They +had planted a large orchard, and a vineyard that was just coming into +bearing. Then a new line was run between the states of Utah and +Nevada, which gave this section to Nevada, and Nevada demanded back +taxes; and they amounted to more than their farms and houses were +worth. So Brigham Young said, "Come home to Utah." They came. </p> +<p>Elvira, with Orville a grown son, Walter 17, Tryphena, Amasa and +Euphrasia, returned to the old home in Fairview, leaving all of their +beautiful peach orchards and vineyards, fields of cotton, cane, wheat +and the comfortable houses in the most fertile of lands, which they +had subdued and made to "Blossom as the Rose" by seven long years of +toil and privation. They rendered absolute obedience to their great +leader; and so they hitched up their teams, took their most choice +belongings, and wended their way back to Utah, leaving their +settlement and farms to pay Nevada the back taxes it had demanded. </p> +<p>One company which had thoroughly learned the trick of building a dam +in quick sand of the desert, stopped at an abandoned settlement in +Long Valley, Kane County. O.S. Cox and sons began the engineering of +irrigation canals and dams, and so on, as they had cleaned and +repaired the deserted cabins, so that they offered partial shelter +from the February storms. The people named this town Mt. Carmel. </p> +<p>When the former settlers learned that they had builded dams that would +stand, they came back and said, "Get Out, this is ours," So the weary +pioneers moved again, this time only a few miles farther up the valley +into a pleasant narrow cove, and went to work to build more dams, more +ditches and more cabins. In one place the water had to be carried +across a gulley, and it gave more trouble than all the rest of the +canal. After a while Cox, without comment or consultation, went into +the timber and found a very large log and felled it, made of it a huge +trough, placed it across the gully and it reached far enough to secure +a solid bed above the quicksand. Thirty years later, this "Cox Trough" +was still doing successful service as a flume. </p> +<p>In 1875, when Brigham strongly taught the principle of Cooperation, +this company of saints were organized by unanimous consent into the +united order of Enoch, and named their town Orderville. Their little +property, mostly cattle, horses and wagons, were owned jointly. Twelve +years father labored joyously and unselfishly in the "Order". The town +grew and thrived; the arts, schools and trades were remarkably well +represented by the young. Prosperity and a measure of plenty was +there, in spite of the fact that there were more infirm people in that +ward than any ward in the church. </p> +<p>Then dissatisfaction and disunion came, and the "Order" broke up. +There was not a great deal of property to divide, although some people +came out with more property with others, according to the amount they +consecrated in. Mary and Eliza, father's second and third wives, each +received a team and wagon. Mary and her family located in Huntington, +Emery County, Eliza and her family in Tropic, Garfield County. Father +well along in years, and broken in health, could do little more than +advise his sons. Eliza was dying of cancer. In 1886 Orville S. Cox +came to Fairview to the best-provided for branch of his family. One +year he remained an invalid, and on July 4, 1888 he laid his exhausted +body down to rest. The passing was quiet and peaceful. His two wives +Elvira and Mary and many of his descendants were with him at the last. </p> +<p>The following are some of the thriving towns O.S. Cox assisted in +founding: Lima, Ill.; Pisgah, Iowa; Salt Lake City, Bountiful, Manti, +Gunnuson, Fairview, Glenwood of Utah; St. Thomas, St. Joseph, Overton +of Nevada; Mt. Carmel, Orderville and Tropic of Utah. </p> +<p>If man ever earned his salvation, surely O.S. Cox did. Always found in +the van where the hardest work was to be done, and if he advanced the +cause one iota, no matter at what loss, or cost to himself, he +considered he had been eminently successful. Never was there a murmur +from him. </p> +<p>To illustrate the ingenuity of O.S. Cox's ditch making, here is the +story of the Pig Plow as told by an old settler of Fairview, Pappas +Brady. </p> +<p>"When the ditch was first laid out that was afterwards called "City +Ditch", every man and boy was called on to come and work on it every +day til it would carry water. This was in the spring, and it had to be +finished before the fields were ready to be plowed and planted. The +men turned out well with teams and plows, picks and crow bars and +shovels. There was a rocky point at the head of the ditch to be ut +through, and it was hard pan, about like cement. Couldn't be touched +by plow, no siree; now more than nothing. We was just prying the +gravel loose with picks and crowbars, and looked like it would take us +weeks to do six rods. Yes, six weeks. Cox looked at us working and +sweating, and never offered to lift a finger. No sir, never done a +tap; just looked and then without saying a word, he turned around and +walked off. Yes, sir, walked off! Well of all the mad bunch of men you +ever saw I guess he was about the maddest. Of course, we didn't swear; +we was Mormons and the Bishop was there, but we watched him go and one +of the men says, "Well, I didn't think Cox was that kind of a feller." +His going discouraged the rest of us, just took the heart out of us. +But of course we plugged away pretendin' to work the rest of the day, +and dragged back the next morning." </p> +<p>"We weren't near all there when here came Cox. I don't just remember +whether it was four yoke of oxen or six or eight, for I was just a +boy, but it was a long string and they was every one of a good pulling +ox. And they was hitched on to a plow a plumb new kind, yes sir, a new +kind of plow. It was a great big pitch pine log, about fourteen feet +long, and may have been eighteen, with a limb stickin' down like as if +my arm and hand was the log and my thumb the limb; he had bored a hole +through the log, and put a crow bar down in front of the knob; and +cross ways along the log back of the limb he bored holes and put stout +oak sticks through spikes. They were the plow handles; and he had +eight man got ahold of them handles find hold the plow level and he +loaded a bunch of men along on that log, and then he spoke to his +oxen." </p> +<p>"Great Scott, ye oter seen the gravel fly, and ye oter heard us +fellers laugh and holler! Well, sir, he plowed up and down that ditch +line four or five times and that ditch was made, practically made. All +that the rest of us had to do was to shovel out the loose stuff; he +done more in half a day than all the rest of us could a done in six +weeks." </p> +<p>"Why didn't he tell his plans the first thing, so we wouldn't be so +discouraged, and hate him so? Why, cause he knew it wouldn't do a +might of good to talk. He wasn't the Bishop; and even if he had been, +plans like that would sure be hooted at by half the fellers. No, +siree! His way was the best when a bunch of men and a thing a workin' +they see believe; yes, sir, seein' is believin." </p> +<blockquote><p>The Pioneer Mother </p> +<p> Upon a jolting wagon sent she rode +<br> Across the trackless prairie to the west, +<br> Or trudged behind the oxen with a goad, +<br> A sleeping child clasped tightly to her breast, +<br> Frail flesh rebelling, but spirit never— +<br> What tales the dark could tell of woman's tears!!— +<br> Her bravery incentive to endeavor; +<br> Her laughter spurring strong men past their fears. </p> +<p> O to her valor and her comeliness +<br> A commonwealth today owes its white domes +<br> Of State, its fields, its highways, and its homes— +<br> Its cities wrested from the wilderness. +<br> Its bones in memory above the hand +<br> That gentled, woman-wise, a savage land. </p> +<p>—Ethol Romig Fuller </p></blockquote> + + +<h3>Transcriber's Note</h3> + +<p>The original pamphlet contains many images that were omitted in this +electronic version. Scans of the original work can be found at +<A HREF="https://archive.org/details/biographicalsket00sidw">archive.org</A>. The poem "The +Pioneer Mother," originally presented in a sidebar, has been moved +to the end of the work for improved readability on typical e-reader +devices.</p> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 50322 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/50322-h.zip b/old/50322-h.zip Binary files differindex 33aa9cf..33aa9cf 100644 --- a/50322-h.zip +++ b/old/50322-h.zip diff --git a/old/50322-h/50322-h.htm b/old/50322-h/50322-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..928a4fb --- /dev/null +++ b/old/50322-h/50322-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,980 @@ + +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> + +<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<title> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Biographical Sketch of Orville Southerland Cox, by Adelia B. 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Cox Sidwell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of 1847 + +Author: Adelia B. Cox Sidwell + +Release Date: October 27, 2015 [EBook #50322] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORVILLE SOUTHERLAND COX *** + + + + +Produced by Margaret Willden, Mormon Texts Project Intern +(http://mormontextsproject.org) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>Biographical Sketch of Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of 1847</h1> +<br><p class="centered">The Pioneer Spirit</p> +<p class="centered">The Pioneer Spirit that mastered things +<br> And Broke the virgin sod, +<br> That conquered savages and kings, +<br> And only bowed to God. +<br> The Strength of mind and strength of soul— +<br> The will to do or die, +<br> That sets its heart upon a goal, +<br> And made it far or high—</p> +<p class="centered">—Clarence Hawkes</p> +<h3>Orville Southerland Cox</h3> +<p>Biographical sketch of Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of 1847, +partly from a sketch written by Adelia B. Cox Sidwell for the +"Daughters of the Pioneers", Manti, Utah, 1913. </p> +<p>Orville S. Cox, was born in Plymouth, N.Y. November 25, 1814. He was +one of a family of 12 children, ten of whom reached maturity. His +father died when he was about fifteen years old. And he was then +"bound out"; apprenticed to learn the trade of a blacksmith under a +deacon Jones, who was considered an excellent man as he was a pillar +of the church. The agreement was that he was to work obediently until +twenty one and that Jones as to give him board and clothes, three +months of school each winter, and teach him the trade of +blacksmithing. No schooling was given or allowed, and one pair of +jeans pants was all the clothing he received during the first three +years of his apprenticeship, and his food was rather limited too. The +women folks ran a dairy, but the boy was never allowed a drink of +milk, of which he was very fond because the Mrs. said "it made too big +a hole in the cheese." He was indeed a poor little bondsman, receiving +plenty of abusive treatment. As to teaching him the trade, he was kept +blowing the bellows and using the tongs and heavy sledge. But the +deacon sometimes went to distant places and then the boy secretly used +the tools and practiced doing the things his keen eyes had watched his +master do. During some of these hours of freedom, he made himself a +pair of skates from pieces of broken nails he gathered carefully and +saved. </p> +<p>Also, he straightened a discarded gun barrel and made a hammer, +trigger, sights, etc, to it, so that he had an effective weapon. These +things he had to keep hidden from the eyes of his master and +associates, but secretly he had great joy in his possessions and once +in a while found a little time to use them. </p> +<p>Occasionally the monotony at the bellows and with the tongs and +sledge—was broken in other ways;—for example—at one time oxen were +brought to the shop to be shod that had extremely hard hoofs, called +"glassy hoofs". Whenever Deacon undertook to drive a nail in, it bent. +Cox straightened nails over and over, as nails were precious articles +in those days and must not be discarded because they were bent. After +a while, the boy said "let me". And he shod the oxen without a bending +a single nail; And thereafter Cox shod the oxen, one and all that came +to the shop. </p> +<p>One other pleasant duty was his: that of burning charcoal, as coal was +then undiscovered. He learned much of the trade of the woodman while +attending to the pits in the depth of the might New York Forests, as +well as having an opportunity to use his skates and gun a little. </p> +<p>He acquired the cognoman of "Deek" among his associates, and when he +had worked for something over three years, he came to the conclusion +that was all he ever would acquire, along with harsh treatment; so +during one of the Deacon's visits to a distant parish, he gathered +together his few belongings and a lunch, between two days, shouldered +his home made gun and "hit the trail for the tall timber", that being +the route on which he was least apt to be discovered. He made his way +toward the Susquehannah river. First he reached the Tioga River, which +was a branch of the Susquehannah. He began reconnoitering for a means +of crossing or floating down the river and soon discovered a log +canoe, "dug-out" as it was called, frozen in the mud. He decided to +confiscate it as "contraband of war" and pried it up, launched it, and +was soon floating and paddling in it down toward the junction of the +Tioga and the Susquehannah. </p> +<p>Shortly he felt his tired feet being submerged in cold water. Stooping +to investigate, he found that the log was leaky and rapidly filling +with water. He also found an old woolen firkin, a small barrel, that +he at once began making use of, bailing the water, alternately +paddeling, steering and bailing. He continued down the stream, keeping +near the shore as possible, in case the old dug-out should get the +best of him. The second day he heard "Hello, there, will you take a +passenger?" from a man on shore. "Yes, if you'll help bail, steer, and +row." "Barkis is willin", came the reply, so there were two in the log +canoe. </p> +<p>Then they made better time. Nearing the confluence of the rivers, they +saw a boat preparing to leave the dock for a trip up the Susquehannah, +a primitive stern wheel packet of those early days (1831). He and his +passenger applied themselves to their paddling, bailing and steering, +signalling the boat to wait; just as she started he drew near enough +to leap from the dug-out to her deck. </p> +<p>A free boy! For now he was sure pursuit would not overtake him. His +passenger called "What shall I do with this canoe?" "Keep her or let +her float" shouted Cox. (If the owner of that dug-out will send in his +bill for damages, O.S. Cox's children will cheerfully settle.) As for +food on this trip with the canoe, game was plentiful and he was a good +shot. While on this boat, he must have worked his passage, for he had +no money. </p> +<p>On board that boat with a Cargo of Southern Produce, he, for the first +time in his life, saw an orange. He remained on this little river +packet some distance up the river, then lended and found lucrative +employment at lumbering and logging, and sometimes at the blacksmith's +forge. Soon he had the good luck to find his two brothers, Walter and +Augustus, rafting logs down the river. He was an expert at this +himself. </p> +<p>Now he learned that his mother, and her younger children, Amos, +Harriet, Mary and Jonathan had gone to Ohio under the care of his +older brother, William U., via the great world famous Erie Canal; (at +that time the largest canal in the world.) So by slow degrees and hard +work he began to work his way toward Ohio. Usually he worked for +lumber companies. His two brothers did likewise. They literally walked +wall the way through the forests, the whole length of the state of New +York. Finally they were united as a family in Nelson, Portage Co. +Ohio, the former home of his future wife, Elvira, although she was at +that time an emigrant in Missouri. The eight Cox boys continued their +westward course; some of them reached California during the gold +stampede. Charles B. Cox was elected Senator from Santa Rosa Company +for a number of terms. William U. had put his property in a concern +called the Phalanx and was defrauded by the officers of every cent and +left in debt $3000.00, an enormous sum for those days. Orville's +mother Lucinda, and her family went to Missouri. Walter had receive +the gospel in Ohio previously. Orville heard terrible stories of the +outlawry of those "awful Mormons"; but he became personally acquainted +with some (Among them a Sylvester Hulet). He decided they were sinned +against. He lived in Jackson County for a time, and ever after Jackson +County Missouri was the goal of his ambition; He believed to his dying +day that he should one day return to that favored spot. </p> +<p>Orville met and loved Elvira in Far West, but was not baptized. He +said he didn't propose to turn Mormon to procure a wife. When the +Saints were driven from Missouri, he located near Lima, Illinois, with +a group of Mormons and helped build the Morley settlement. </p> +<p>Nearing his 24th birthday, he was a thorough frontiersman, forester, +lumberman, a splendid blacksmith, a natural born engineer; in short a +genius and an all around good fellow. He was six feet in his socks and +heavy proportionately. </p> +<p>While here he won the heart of the orphan girl, Elvira P. Mills, who +was living with her uncle, Sylvester Hulet. But she hesitated about +marrying a gentile. October 3, 1839, however, she yielded, and they +were married in Father Elisha Whiting's home, at the Morley Settlement +by Elder Lyman Wight. </p> +<p>The two newly weds, on October 6, 1839, drove into Nauvoo twenty miles +away, and Orville S. Cox was baptized by the Prophet Joseph Smith. He +went a gentile and returned a full-fledged Mormon, so short a time it +takes a woman to make a convert. He was a faithful L.D.S., full of love +and zeal. He was a member of the famous brass band of the Nauvoo +Legion. When the Prophet and his brother were killed, none mourned +more sincerely than he. He assisted those more helpless or destitute +in the migration from Nauvoo. His stacks of grain were burned at the +Morley settlement by the robbers, and they fled to the City of Nauvoo, +he with his wife and two children—the oldest child had died when an +infant as a result of its mother having chills and fever, and from +exposure resulting from mobbers' violence. </p> +<p>He attended the meeting where Sidney Rigdon asked the Saints to +appoint him as guardian, and where Brigham Young claimed that the +Twelve Apostles were the ordained leaders; and many times thereafter +he testified that he saw Brigham Young changed to appear like Joseph +and heard his voice take on the Prophet's tone. And after that +manifestation he never doubted for a moment that the rightful +leadership of the Church was vested in the twelve, with Brigham Young +at their head. He remained in Nauvoo till almost the last departed. He +assisted Browning in transforming the old rusty steamer shafts into +cannons that were so effectually used by Daniel H. Wells at the Battle +of Nauvoo. </p> +<p>Leaving Nauvoo with the last of the Mormon exiles, he crossed Iowa and +settled at Pisgah, where he served as counselor to Lorenzo Snow, +President at Mt. Pisgah. In his devoted attachment to Lorenzo Snow, he +was an enthusiast; also to Father Morley and he would follow their +leadership anywhere. Orville and Elvira had their two children, Almer +and Adelia. </p> +<p>An incident that illustrated the pioneer life of 1845-6 is told in the +story of the "Last Match." In the winter of 1845-6 Orville S. Cox and +two Whiting boys, cousins of Elvira, went from Pisgah with ox teams +and wagons down into Missouri with a load of chairs to sell. Whitings +had a shop in which they manufactured chairs. Being successful in +disposing of their chairs, and securing loads of bacon and corn, they +were almost home when an Iowa blizzard, or hurricane, or cyclone, or +all in one, struck them. Clouds and Egyptian darkness settled suddenly +around them. They had not modern "tornado cellars" to flee into and no +manner of shelter of any kind. The cold was intense; the wind came +from every direction; they were all skilled backwoodsmen and knew they +were very close to their homes; but they also knew that they were +hopelessly lost in that swirling wind and those black clouds of snow. +They and their oxen were freezing, and their only hope of life was in +making a fire and camping where they were. Everything was wet and +under the snow, and an arctic wind in the fierceness of unclaimed +violence was raging around them. At first, they unyoked the oxen that +they might find some sort of shelter for themselves. Then with +frost-bitten fingers they sought in the darkness and storm for dry +fuel. The best they found was damp and poor enough—and now for a +match. Only three in the crowd, and no such matches as we have in +these days either. Inside a large wooden bucket in which they fed +grain, they carefully laid their kindling. Then turning another bucket +over it to keep out of the falling snow, and hugging close over to +keep the wind off, they lifted the top bucket a little and one of the +Whiting boys struck a precious match. It flickered, blazed a moment +against the kindling and was puffed out by a draft of wind. Another +match was taken, and it died almost before it flared. Only one match +remained to save three men from certain death. Their fingers were so +numb they could not feel, and every minute increased their numbness. +"Let Orville Try; he is steadier than we", they said. So Orville, +keenly sensing his responsibility, took the tiny splinter of wood and +struck the spark; it caught, it blazed and the fire lived and grew. </p> +<p>Now they were in the woods and the fuel was plentiful and soon a +roaring blaze was swirling upward. The cattle came near, and although +their noses and feet were frozen, their feet grew new hoofs and their +noses healed of frosted cracks. When the storm broke and light +appeared, they found themselves only a few rocks from their home +fences. </p> +<p>For a good reason, Orville was not in the Battalion draft. The Whiting +boys, Sylvester Hulet, and Amos Cox were. But Orville was very busy +manufacturing wagons. It was told of him that he found a linch pin and +said, "I'll just make a wagon to fit that pin". He prepared as good +and serviceable an outfit as his limited means would allow for the +long dreary journey to the mountains. Two home made wagons, without +brakes—brakes were not needed on the eastern end of the journey—two +yoke of oxen, three yoke of cows, a box of chickens on the back of a +wagon, a wife and two children, with bedding and food, was the outfit +that started across the plains the last of June 1847, singing the song +"In the spring we'll take our journey. All to cross the grassy +plains." He travelled in the hundred of Charles C. Rich, known as the +Artillery Company. Cox was captain of one of the tens. Oh! the +seemingly endless level prairie! The monotony was terribly wearing. +When Independence Rock was sighted, and again when Chimney Rock was +sighted, it was wonderful relief. Great land marks they were, in that +unsettled country. Now they were sure they were approaching the Rocky +Mountains, especially the children longed for that goal. </p> +<p>One evening at camping time, 4:00 P.M., a herd of buffalo were sighted +about two miles away. The people were very hungry for a piece of fresh +beef, so Father and one companion shouldered their guns, snatched +their percussion caps and powder horns, and started to "try a hunter's +luck." About sunset they got their steak, a generous load of the best +cuts from the Buffalo, and started for camp. On and on they went. What +they thought was a two mile stretch lengthened and lengthened, and +their loads of meat grew heavier and heavier. They began to think they +were lost; but the camp fires and stars told them they were going in +the right direction. Finally they decided to fire their guns. This +they did, and it filled the camp with alarm, least the hunters were in +danger. Two or three men rushed away in the darkness to give aid, and +they fired their guns to locate the hunters. Several shots brought +them together. "Help us with this grub pile", they said. Help was +given. They reached the camp at 11:00 o'clock. It must have been six +miles or perhaps ten to the herd of buffalo. They were now in the +clear air of the up-lands and could see much farther than they had +been able to see in the Mississippi valley. </p> +<p>The next morning all in the camp had a feast of fresh meat. </p> +<p>After leaving the Platte River, while travelling along the sweet Water +River, the company met General Kearney and his company of Battalion +scouts with their illustrious prisoner, the great path-finder +Freemont. </p> +<p>(When California was freed from Mexican rule, Freemont and his little +band, who had helped to free it, were greatly rejoiced; and in their +enthusiasm his followers proclaimed Freemont governor. General Kearney +arrived and expected to be governor by right of his generalship. He +was very angry and had Freemont arrested and sent to Washington.) </p> +<p>With Freemont's guards were Sylvester Hulet, Elvira's Uncle, and Amos +Cox. They had traveled many weary months in an unknown, lonely +country; and C.C. Riche's company were also travel weary. To thus meet +relatives so unexpectedly was a joy unspeakable to both parties. </p> +<p>Now the battalion men heard from their families left in Iowa, for the +first time in more than a year. And tears of joy and sorrow were +freely mingled. A daughter of Amos had died. Sylvester's wife had gone +to New York where the Whitmer's and her father and brothers lived; so +he decided to return to the Rocky Mountains with the pioneers, and +Kearney gave him his discharge. Amos Cox continued with the prisoner +to Fort Leavenworth, where he received his honorable discharge, and +then went to his weary waiting family in Iowa. </p> +<p>The pioneering company continued on westward. At Green River, near +Bridger's Station, they met pioneers who had reached Great Salt Lake +Valley and made a start toward a new home; and were now returning to +the camps in Iowa, with more definite knowledge and instructions to +impart to those who were to come to the mountains next year. They told +Rich's company many things regarding the way that lay before them, and +it was a great relief to know that they were nearing their +destination. </p> +<p>From now on the mountains were on every side; frowning cliffs looked +ready to fall on and crush the poor foot-sore travelers; for people +raised on the plains are apt to have a shuddering of such sights. C.C. +Riche's artillery company rolled into the valley of the great Salt +Lake. They were only two or three days behind Jedediah M. Grant's +company of one hundred wagons. </p> +<p>Being expert in handling lumber, Cox was immediately sent into the +canyon for logs. Houses must now be built. Among other timbers, he +brought down a magnificent specimen of a pine for a "Liberty Pole", +which he assisted in raising on Pioneer Square. It was the first pole +to carry the stars and stripes in the city. One had been raised on +Ensign Peak before. They wintered in Salt Lake Valley. There another +son, Orville M., was born November 29, 1847. </p> +<p>Very early in the spring of 1848 father moved from the Adobe Fort with +his wife and three children, and began farming in Sessionsville, Now +Bountiful; He was the first bishop of the ward. There they had the +famous experience with the crickets. He devised the broad paddles, as +well as the oft mentioned methods, to try to exterminate them; and +then came the Gulls. He raised a crop in '48 and '49 there; also he +dug the first well in Bountiful, and struck water so suddenly as to be +drowned by it before he could be hauled up. In the fall of '49 he was +called to go with "Father" Morley's company to colonize the valley of +Sanpitch. </p> +<p>He arrived at the future site of Manti November 19, 1849. The journey +from Salt Lake City to the Sanpete Valley occupied one month, breaking +new roads, fixing fords, and building dug-ways. The forty families +worked industriously, sometimes only movin' forward two or three +miles. One six mile stretch in Salt Creek Canyon occupied them a whole +week. The only settlement between Salt Lake and Manti was Provo, +consisting of a little fort of green cottonwood logs. </p> +<p>After getting through Salt Creek Canyon in two weeks, they worked to +their upmost strength for it began snowing on them there; and it was +far from being a desirable winter's home. That winter was one of the +hardest with the heaviest snow fall for many succeeding years. +Arriving at their destination, camp was made by the Morley's company +on the south side of Temple Hill which was a sheltered spot. Now they +must do their upmost in canyons, raising log cabins, sowing lumber on +the saw pit, which was the most primitive of saw mills. </p> +<p>Orville was an expert at hewing and squaring the logs with his ax, and +making everything as comfortable as possible in their home. All winter +long they had to help the cattle find feed by shovelling snow in the +meadows, as the snow lay four feet deep. It was May before the snow +was gone so that the men could begin to clear the ground and begin +their farming. Then there came irrigating ditches to dig and the usual +labor of clearing, plowing, and planting. </p> +<p>Between their individual duties, they found time to build log school, +and a bowery, and then a meeting house. They felt that it was quite +commodious. Here in the long evenings of the winter of 1850-51 Cox +taught a singing and dancing school. Sarah Potty was the first school +of Ma'am. In the winter of 1850-51, school was taught by Jesse W. Fox. +In 1850 he was elected Alderman. </p> +<p>O.S. Cox married Mary Allen about 1854; he served many years as the +first counselor to Bishop Lowry; and he was captain of the Militia. He +was very energetic in the performance of his duties, especially +through the protracted period of the Walker war. He married Eliza +Losee about 1857-59. He served under Major Higgins, and old Battalion +veteran. </p> +<p>To be sure, nobody appreciated more than he did a liberty pole, and all +that it typified, so he was commissioned to find one at the earliest +convenient moment for Manti; this he did in 1850. Ten years he labored +faithfully for the upbuilding of Manti, and then like Boon and +Crockett, "he wanted more elbow room" and moved to Fairview, Sanpete +County. He also moved part of his family to Gunnison (Hog Wallow, it +was called then) and raised two crops there. In February 1864, he +moved part of his family to Glenwood, built a cabin there and raised a +crop. He sold out and moved elsewhere to engineer ditches. He +engineered over forty ditches in Utah and Nevada, as near as his +children can remember in 1910, as well as doing all other kinds of +pioneer work. </p> +<p>In 1865 he was advised by Lorenzo Snow to move to the Muddy, a branch +of the Rio Virgin, a stream running through Moappa Valley, to assist +in surveying and making irrigation ditches there. The soil was very +rich, but there was so much quick sand that it made it almost +impossible to build a dam that hold or to irrigate without washing +away the soil. So he went south into southeastern Nevada. He thought +that was the route the saints would travel going back to Jackson +County, so he was that much nearer the final home. He labored here for +six years, and engineered a number of dams that would hold against the +floods and treachery of quicksand. They had only poor home made plows +and a few other tools to work with, and no cement or modern building +material. He also built cabins and cleared and tilled the land there. +In clearing the land, the "Mesquite" brush root was the hardest +digging they encountered. St. Thomas, St. Joseph and Overton, the 3 +towns in the valley were partly of his building. The first trip, he +took with him his third wife, Eliza, and her one child, a little two +year old girl; and Walter, a 14 year old son of the first wife, +Elvira. The following year, after crops were in and the spring work +done, he returned to Fairview after another section of his +family—Mary, the second wife, and her five children. From that time +on O.S. Cox's life is a volume of tragedy and hardship. The life in +the burning desert is always more or less unpleasant, and pioneering +is excessively hard. And he was past fifty years old. </p> +<p>During his absence, Eliza's little girl Lucinda, took her little pail +to the creek to get some water; the quicksand caused her to slip and +she was drowned. They took her out not very far from down the stream, +but could not resuscitate her. The poor mother, among strangers and +homesick, was unconsolable in her sorrow. Walter, seeing his little +pet companion stricken in all her robust beauty and health, was wild +with grief, and could not be comforted. After a time the neighbors +concluded that Walter would die if some change did not come to get him +to sleep and eat. They told Eliza of their fears for him, and so the +disconsolate mother tried to hide her own grief and comfort him. It is +said it was the saddest thing the woman there ever saw, to see the +brave mother and the boy trying to comfort each other in their +loneliness. Fifty years later, it was a nightmare to Walt. </p> +<p>Almer, Laun and Walt all went to the Muddy in 1867, the year Mary was +moved. In 1868 Philmon, fifth son of Elvira, a very promising lad of +thirteen, died of appendicitis, at that time called inflammation of +the bowels. Then Mary lost a little daughter, Lucy for whom she +grieved many years. </p> +<p>Financially the prospects were more promising than ever before. They +had planted a large orchard, and a vineyard that was just coming into +bearing. Then a new line was run between the states of Utah and +Nevada, which gave this section to Nevada, and Nevada demanded back +taxes; and they amounted to more than their farms and houses were +worth. So Brigham Young said, "Come home to Utah." They came. </p> +<p>Elvira, with Orville a grown son, Walter 17, Tryphena, Amasa and +Euphrasia, returned to the old home in Fairview, leaving all of their +beautiful peach orchards and vineyards, fields of cotton, cane, wheat +and the comfortable houses in the most fertile of lands, which they +had subdued and made to "Blossom as the Rose" by seven long years of +toil and privation. They rendered absolute obedience to their great +leader; and so they hitched up their teams, took their most choice +belongings, and wended their way back to Utah, leaving their +settlement and farms to pay Nevada the back taxes it had demanded. </p> +<p>One company which had thoroughly learned the trick of building a dam +in quick sand of the desert, stopped at an abandoned settlement in +Long Valley, Kane County. O.S. Cox and sons began the engineering of +irrigation canals and dams, and so on, as they had cleaned and +repaired the deserted cabins, so that they offered partial shelter +from the February storms. The people named this town Mt. Carmel. </p> +<p>When the former settlers learned that they had builded dams that would +stand, they came back and said, "Get Out, this is ours," So the weary +pioneers moved again, this time only a few miles farther up the valley +into a pleasant narrow cove, and went to work to build more dams, more +ditches and more cabins. In one place the water had to be carried +across a gulley, and it gave more trouble than all the rest of the +canal. After a while Cox, without comment or consultation, went into +the timber and found a very large log and felled it, made of it a huge +trough, placed it across the gully and it reached far enough to secure +a solid bed above the quicksand. Thirty years later, this "Cox Trough" +was still doing successful service as a flume. </p> +<p>In 1875, when Brigham strongly taught the principle of Cooperation, +this company of saints were organized by unanimous consent into the +united order of Enoch, and named their town Orderville. Their little +property, mostly cattle, horses and wagons, were owned jointly. Twelve +years father labored joyously and unselfishly in the "Order". The town +grew and thrived; the arts, schools and trades were remarkably well +represented by the young. Prosperity and a measure of plenty was +there, in spite of the fact that there were more infirm people in that +ward than any ward in the church. </p> +<p>Then dissatisfaction and disunion came, and the "Order" broke up. +There was not a great deal of property to divide, although some people +came out with more property with others, according to the amount they +consecrated in. Mary and Eliza, father's second and third wives, each +received a team and wagon. Mary and her family located in Huntington, +Emery County, Eliza and her family in Tropic, Garfield County. Father +well along in years, and broken in health, could do little more than +advise his sons. Eliza was dying of cancer. In 1886 Orville S. Cox +came to Fairview to the best-provided for branch of his family. One +year he remained an invalid, and on July 4, 1888 he laid his exhausted +body down to rest. The passing was quiet and peaceful. His two wives +Elvira and Mary and many of his descendants were with him at the last. </p> +<p>The following are some of the thriving towns O.S. Cox assisted in +founding: Lima, Ill.; Pisgah, Iowa; Salt Lake City, Bountiful, Manti, +Gunnuson, Fairview, Glenwood of Utah; St. Thomas, St. Joseph, Overton +of Nevada; Mt. Carmel, Orderville and Tropic of Utah. </p> +<p>If man ever earned his salvation, surely O.S. Cox did. Always found in +the van where the hardest work was to be done, and if he advanced the +cause one iota, no matter at what loss, or cost to himself, he +considered he had been eminently successful. Never was there a murmur +from him. </p> +<p>To illustrate the ingenuity of O.S. Cox's ditch making, here is the +story of the Pig Plow as told by an old settler of Fairview, Pappas +Brady. </p> +<p>"When the ditch was first laid out that was afterwards called "City +Ditch", every man and boy was called on to come and work on it every +day til it would carry water. This was in the spring, and it had to be +finished before the fields were ready to be plowed and planted. The +men turned out well with teams and plows, picks and crow bars and +shovels. There was a rocky point at the head of the ditch to be ut +through, and it was hard pan, about like cement. Couldn't be touched +by plow, no siree; now more than nothing. We was just prying the +gravel loose with picks and crowbars, and looked like it would take us +weeks to do six rods. Yes, six weeks. Cox looked at us working and +sweating, and never offered to lift a finger. No sir, never done a +tap; just looked and then without saying a word, he turned around and +walked off. Yes, sir, walked off! Well of all the mad bunch of men you +ever saw I guess he was about the maddest. Of course, we didn't swear; +we was Mormons and the Bishop was there, but we watched him go and one +of the men says, "Well, I didn't think Cox was that kind of a feller." +His going discouraged the rest of us, just took the heart out of us. +But of course we plugged away pretendin' to work the rest of the day, +and dragged back the next morning." </p> +<p>"We weren't near all there when here came Cox. I don't just remember +whether it was four yoke of oxen or six or eight, for I was just a +boy, but it was a long string and they was every one of a good pulling +ox. And they was hitched on to a plow a plumb new kind, yes sir, a new +kind of plow. It was a great big pitch pine log, about fourteen feet +long, and may have been eighteen, with a limb stickin' down like as if +my arm and hand was the log and my thumb the limb; he had bored a hole +through the log, and put a crow bar down in front of the knob; and +cross ways along the log back of the limb he bored holes and put stout +oak sticks through spikes. They were the plow handles; and he had +eight man got ahold of them handles find hold the plow level and he +loaded a bunch of men along on that log, and then he spoke to his +oxen." </p> +<p>"Great Scott, ye oter seen the gravel fly, and ye oter heard us +fellers laugh and holler! Well, sir, he plowed up and down that ditch +line four or five times and that ditch was made, practically made. All +that the rest of us had to do was to shovel out the loose stuff; he +done more in half a day than all the rest of us could a done in six +weeks." </p> +<p>"Why didn't he tell his plans the first thing, so we wouldn't be so +discouraged, and hate him so? Why, cause he knew it wouldn't do a +might of good to talk. He wasn't the Bishop; and even if he had been, +plans like that would sure be hooted at by half the fellers. No, +siree! His way was the best when a bunch of men and a thing a workin' +they see believe; yes, sir, seein' is believin." </p> +<blockquote><p>The Pioneer Mother </p> +<p> Upon a jolting wagon sent she rode +<br> Across the trackless prairie to the west, +<br> Or trudged behind the oxen with a goad, +<br> A sleeping child clasped tightly to her breast, +<br> Frail flesh rebelling, but spirit never— +<br> What tales the dark could tell of woman's tears!!— +<br> Her bravery incentive to endeavor; +<br> Her laughter spurring strong men past their fears. </p> +<p> O to her valor and her comeliness +<br> A commonwealth today owes its white domes +<br> Of State, its fields, its highways, and its homes— +<br> Its cities wrested from the wilderness. +<br> Its bones in memory above the hand +<br> That gentled, woman-wise, a savage land. </p> +<p>—Ethol Romig Fuller </p></blockquote> + + +<h3>Transcriber's Note</h3> + +<p>The original pamphlet contains many images that were omitted in this +electronic version. Scans of the original work can be found at +<A HREF="https://archive.org/details/biographicalsket00sidw">archive.org</A>. The poem "The +Pioneer Mother," originally presented in a sidebar, has been moved +to the end of the work for improved readability on typical e-reader +devices.</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of +1847, by Adelia B. 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-Adelia B. Cox Sidwell
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
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-
-Title: Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of 1847
-
-Author: Adelia B. Cox Sidwell
-
-Release Date: October 27, 2015 [EBook #50322]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORVILLE SOUTHERLAND COX ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Margaret Willden, Mormon Texts Project Intern
-(http://mormontextsproject.org)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-Biographical Sketch of Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of 1847
-
-
-The Pioneer Spirit
-
- The Pioneer Spirit that mastered things
- And Broke the virgin sod,
- That conquered savages and kings,
- And only bowed to God.
- The Strength of mind and strength of soul--
- The will to do or die,
- That sets its heart upon a goal,
- And made it far or high--
-
- --Clarence Hawkes
-
-
-Orville Southerland Cox
-
-Biographical sketch of Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of 1847, partly
-from a sketch written by Adelia B. Cox Sidwell for the "Daughters of
-the Pioneers", Manti, Utah, 1913.
-
-Orville S. Cox, was born in Plymouth, N.Y. November 25, 1814. He was
-one of a family of 12 children, ten of whom reached maturity. His
-father died when he was about fifteen years old. And he was then "bound
-out"; apprenticed to learn the trade of a blacksmith under a deacon
-Jones, who was considered an excellent man as he was a pillar of the
-church. The agreement was that he was to work obediently until twenty
-one and that Jones as to give him board and clothes, three months
-of school each winter, and teach him the trade of blacksmithing.
-No schooling was given or allowed, and one pair of jeans pants was
-all the clothing he received during the first three years of his
-apprenticeship, and his food was rather limited too. The women folks
-ran a dairy, but the boy was never allowed a drink of milk, of which
-he was very fond because the Mrs. said "it made too big a hole in the
-cheese." He was indeed a poor little bondsman, receiving plenty of
-abusive treatment. As to teaching him the trade, he was kept blowing
-the bellows and using the tongs and heavy sledge. But the deacon
-sometimes went to distant places and then the boy secretly used the
-tools and practiced doing the things his keen eyes had watched his
-master do. During some of these hours of freedom, he made himself a
-pair of skates from pieces of broken nails he gathered carefully and
-saved.
-
-Also, he straightened a discarded gun barrel and made a hammer,
-trigger, sights, etc, to it, so that he had an effective weapon.
-These things he had to keep hidden from the eyes of his master and
-associates, but secretly he had great joy in his possessions and once
-in a while found a little time to use them.
-
-Occasionally the monotony at the bellows and with the tongs and
-sledge--was broken in other ways;--for example--at one time oxen were
-brought to the shop to be shod that had extremely hard hoofs, called
-"glassy hoofs". Whenever Deacon undertook to drive a nail in, it bent.
-Cox straightened nails over and over, as nails were precious articles
-in those days and must not be discarded because they were bent. After a
-while, the boy said "let me". And he shod the oxen without a bending a
-single nail; And thereafter Cox shod the oxen, one and all that came to
-the shop.
-
-One other pleasant duty was his: that of burning charcoal, as coal was
-then undiscovered. He learned much of the trade of the woodman while
-attending to the pits in the depth of the might New York Forests, as
-well as having an opportunity to use his skates and gun a little.
-
-He acquired the cognoman of "Deek" among his associates, and when he
-had worked for something over three years, he came to the conclusion
-that was all he ever would acquire, along with harsh treatment; so
-during one of the Deacon's visits to a distant parish, he gathered
-together his few belongings and a lunch, between two days, shouldered
-his home made gun and "hit the trail for the tall timber", that being
-the route on which he was least apt to be discovered. He made his way
-toward the Susquehannah river. First he reached the Tioga River, which
-was a branch of the Susquehannah. He began reconnoitering for a means
-of crossing or floating down the river and soon discovered a log canoe,
-"dug-out" as it was called, frozen in the mud. He decided to confiscate
-it as "contraband of war" and pried it up, launched it, and was soon
-floating and paddling in it down toward the junction of the Tioga and
-the Susquehannah.
-
-Shortly he felt his tired feet being submerged in cold water. Stooping
-to investigate, he found that the log was leaky and rapidly filling
-with water. He also found an old woolen firkin, a small barrel, that he
-at once began making use of, bailing the water, alternately paddeling,
-steering and bailing. He continued down the stream, keeping near the
-shore as possible, in case the old dug-out should get the best of him.
-The second day he heard "Hello, there, will you take a passenger?" from
-a man on shore. "Yes, if you'll help bail, steer, and row." "Barkis is
-willin", came the reply, so there were two in the log canoe.
-
-Then they made better time. Nearing the confluence of the rivers, they
-saw a boat preparing to leave the dock for a trip up the Susquehannah,
-a primitive stern wheel packet of those early days (1831). He and his
-passenger applied themselves to their paddling, bailing and steering,
-signalling the boat to wait; just as she started he drew near enough to
-leap from the dug-out to her deck.
-
-A free boy! For now he was sure pursuit would not overtake him. His
-passenger called "What shall I do with this canoe?" "Keep her or let
-her float" shouted Cox. (If the owner of that dug-out will send in his
-bill for damages, O.S. Cox's children will cheerfully settle.) As for
-food on this trip with the canoe, game was plentiful and he was a good
-shot. While on this boat, he must have worked his passage, for he had
-no money.
-
-On board that boat with a Cargo of Southern Produce, he, for the first
-time in his life, saw an orange. He remained on this little river
-packet some distance up the river, then lended and found lucrative
-employment at lumbering and logging, and sometimes at the blacksmith's
-forge. Soon he had the good luck to find his two brothers, Walter and
-Augustus, rafting logs down the river. He was an expert at this himself.
-
-Now he learned that his mother, and her younger children, Amos,
-Harriet, Mary and Jonathan had gone to Ohio under the care of his
-older brother, William U., via the great world famous Erie Canal; (at
-that time the largest canal in the world.) So by slow degrees and
-hard work he began to work his way toward Ohio. Usually he worked for
-lumber companies. His two brothers did likewise. They literally walked
-wall the way through the forests, the whole length of the state of
-New York. Finally they were united as a family in Nelson, Portage Co.
-Ohio, the former home of his future wife, Elvira, although she was
-at that time an emigrant in Missouri. The eight Cox boys continued
-their westward course; some of them reached California during the gold
-stampede. Charles B. Cox was elected Senator from Santa Rosa Company
-for a number of terms. William U. had put his property in a concern
-called the Phalanx and was defrauded by the officers of every cent and
-left in debt $3000.00, an enormous sum for those days. Orville's mother
-Lucinda, and her family went to Missouri. Walter had receive the gospel
-in Ohio previously. Orville heard terrible stories of the outlawry of
-those "awful Mormons"; but he became personally acquainted with some
-(Among them a Sylvester Hulet). He decided they were sinned against.
-He lived in Jackson County for a time, and ever after Jackson County
-Missouri was the goal of his ambition; He believed to his dying day
-that he should one day return to that favored spot.
-
-Orville met and loved Elvira in Far West, but was not baptized. He said
-he didn't propose to turn Mormon to procure a wife. When the Saints
-were driven from Missouri, he located near Lima, Illinois, with a group
-of Mormons and helped build the Morley settlement.
-
-Nearing his 24th birthday, he was a thorough frontiersman, forester,
-lumberman, a splendid blacksmith, a natural born engineer; in short a
-genius and an all around good fellow. He was six feet in his socks and
-heavy proportionately.
-
-While here he won the heart of the orphan girl, Elvira P. Mills, who
-was living with her uncle, Sylvester Hulet. But she hesitated about
-marrying a gentile. October 3, 1839, however, she yielded, and they
-were married in Father Elisha Whiting's home, at the Morley Settlement
-by Elder Lyman Wight.
-
-The two newly weds, on October 6, 1839, drove into Nauvoo twenty miles
-away, and Orville S. Cox was baptized by the Prophet Joseph Smith. He
-went a gentile and returned a full-fledged Mormon, so short a time
-it takes a woman to make a convert. He was a faithful L.D.S., full of
-love and zeal. He was a member of the famous brass band of the Nauvoo
-Legion. When the Prophet and his brother were killed, none mourned more
-sincerely than he. He assisted those more helpless or destitute in the
-migration from Nauvoo. His stacks of grain were burned at the Morley
-settlement by the robbers, and they fled to the City of Nauvoo, he with
-his wife and two children--the oldest child had died when an infant
-as a result of its mother having chills and fever, and from exposure
-resulting from mobbers' violence.
-
-He attended the meeting where Sidney Rigdon asked the Saints to
-appoint him as guardian, and where Brigham Young claimed that the
-Twelve Apostles were the ordained leaders; and many times thereafter
-he testified that he saw Brigham Young changed to appear like
-Joseph and heard his voice take on the Prophet's tone. And after
-that manifestation he never doubted for a moment that the rightful
-leadership of the Church was vested in the twelve, with Brigham Young
-at their head. He remained in Nauvoo till almost the last departed. He
-assisted Browning in transforming the old rusty steamer shafts into
-cannons that were so effectually used by Daniel H. Wells at the Battle
-of Nauvoo.
-
-Leaving Nauvoo with the last of the Mormon exiles, he crossed Iowa
-and settled at Pisgah, where he served as counselor to Lorenzo Snow,
-President at Mt. Pisgah. In his devoted attachment to Lorenzo Snow,
-he was an enthusiast; also to Father Morley and he would follow their
-leadership anywhere. Orville and Elvira had their two children, Almer
-and Adelia.
-
-An incident that illustrated the pioneer life of 1845-6 is told in the
-story of the "Last Match." In the winter of 1845-6 Orville S. Cox and
-two Whiting boys, cousins of Elvira, went from Pisgah with ox teams and
-wagons down into Missouri with a load of chairs to sell. Whitings had a
-shop in which they manufactured chairs. Being successful in disposing
-of their chairs, and securing loads of bacon and corn, they were almost
-home when an Iowa blizzard, or hurricane, or cyclone, or all in one,
-struck them. Clouds and Egyptian darkness settled suddenly around them.
-They had not modern "tornado cellars" to flee into and no manner of
-shelter of any kind. The cold was intense; the wind came from every
-direction; they were all skilled backwoodsmen and knew they were very
-close to their homes; but they also knew that they were hopelessly lost
-in that swirling wind and those black clouds of snow. They and their
-oxen were freezing, and their only hope of life was in making a fire
-and camping where they were. Everything was wet and under the snow,
-and an arctic wind in the fierceness of unclaimed violence was raging
-around them. At first, they unyoked the oxen that they might find some
-sort of shelter for themselves. Then with frost-bitten fingers they
-sought in the darkness and storm for dry fuel. The best they found was
-damp and poor enough--and now for a match. Only three in the crowd, and
-no such matches as we have in these days either. Inside a large wooden
-bucket in which they fed grain, they carefully laid their kindling.
-Then turning another bucket over it to keep out of the falling snow,
-and hugging close over to keep the wind off, they lifted the top
-bucket a little and one of the Whiting boys struck a precious match.
-It flickered, blazed a moment against the kindling and was puffed out
-by a draft of wind. Another match was taken, and it died almost before
-it flared. Only one match remained to save three men from certain
-death. Their fingers were so numb they could not feel, and every minute
-increased their numbness. "Let Orville Try; he is steadier than we",
-they said. So Orville, keenly sensing his responsibility, took the tiny
-splinter of wood and struck the spark; it caught, it blazed and the
-fire lived and grew.
-
-Now they were in the woods and the fuel was plentiful and soon a
-roaring blaze was swirling upward. The cattle came near, and although
-their noses and feet were frozen, their feet grew new hoofs and
-their noses healed of frosted cracks. When the storm broke and light
-appeared, they found themselves only a few rocks from their home fences.
-
-For a good reason, Orville was not in the Battalion draft. The Whiting
-boys, Sylvester Hulet, and Amos Cox were. But Orville was very busy
-manufacturing wagons. It was told of him that he found a linch pin and
-said, "I'll just make a wagon to fit that pin". He prepared as good
-and serviceable an outfit as his limited means would allow for the
-long dreary journey to the mountains. Two home made wagons, without
-brakes--brakes were not needed on the eastern end of the journey--two
-yoke of oxen, three yoke of cows, a box of chickens on the back of a
-wagon, a wife and two children, with bedding and food, was the outfit
-that started across the plains the last of June 1847, singing the song
-"In the spring we'll take our journey. All to cross the grassy plains."
-He travelled in the hundred of Charles C. Rich, known as the Artillery
-Company. Cox was captain of one of the tens. Oh! the seemingly endless
-level prairie! The monotony was terribly wearing. When Independence
-Rock was sighted, and again when Chimney Rock was sighted, it was
-wonderful relief. Great land marks they were, in that unsettled
-country. Now they were sure they were approaching the Rocky Mountains,
-especially the children longed for that goal.
-
-One evening at camping time, 4:00 P.M., a herd of buffalo were sighted
-about two miles away. The people were very hungry for a piece of fresh
-beef, so Father and one companion shouldered their guns, snatched
-their percussion caps and powder horns, and started to "try a hunter's
-luck." About sunset they got their steak, a generous load of the best
-cuts from the Buffalo, and started for camp. On and on they went. What
-they thought was a two mile stretch lengthened and lengthened, and
-their loads of meat grew heavier and heavier. They began to think they
-were lost; but the camp fires and stars told them they were going in
-the right direction. Finally they decided to fire their guns. This
-they did, and it filled the camp with alarm, least the hunters were in
-danger. Two or three men rushed away in the darkness to give aid, and
-they fired their guns to locate the hunters. Several shots brought them
-together. "Help us with this grub pile", they said. Help was given.
-They reached the camp at 11:00 o'clock. It must have been six miles or
-perhaps ten to the herd of buffalo. They were now in the clear air of
-the up-lands and could see much farther than they had been able to see
-in the Mississippi valley.
-
-The next morning all in the camp had a feast of fresh meat.
-
-After leaving the Platte River, while travelling along the sweet Water
-River, the company met General Kearney and his company of Battalion
-scouts with their illustrious prisoner, the great path-finder Freemont.
-
-(When California was freed from Mexican rule, Freemont and his little
-band, who had helped to free it, were greatly rejoiced; and in their
-enthusiasm his followers proclaimed Freemont governor. General Kearney
-arrived and expected to be governor by right of his generalship. He was
-very angry and had Freemont arrested and sent to Washington.)
-
-With Freemont's guards were Sylvester Hulet, Elvira's Uncle, and Amos
-Cox. They had traveled many weary months in an unknown, lonely country;
-and C.C. Riche's company were also travel weary. To thus meet relatives
-so unexpectedly was a joy unspeakable to both parties.
-
-Now the battalion men heard from their families left in Iowa, for the
-first time in more than a year. And tears of joy and sorrow were freely
-mingled. A daughter of Amos had died. Sylvester's wife had gone to
-New York where the Whitmer's and her father and brothers lived; so he
-decided to return to the Rocky Mountains with the pioneers, and Kearney
-gave him his discharge. Amos Cox continued with the prisoner to Fort
-Leavenworth, where he received his honorable discharge, and then went
-to his weary waiting family in Iowa.
-
-The pioneering company continued on westward. At Green River, near
-Bridger's Station, they met pioneers who had reached Great Salt Lake
-Valley and made a start toward a new home; and were now returning to
-the camps in Iowa, with more definite knowledge and instructions to
-impart to those who were to come to the mountains next year. They told
-Rich's company many things regarding the way that lay before them, and
-it was a great relief to know that they were nearing their destination.
-
-From now on the mountains were on every side; frowning cliffs looked
-ready to fall on and crush the poor foot-sore travelers; for people
-raised on the plains are apt to have a shuddering of such sights. C.C.
-Riche's artillery company rolled into the valley of the great Salt
-Lake. They were only two or three days behind Jedediah M. Grant's
-company of one hundred wagons.
-
-Being expert in handling lumber, Cox was immediately sent into the
-canyon for logs. Houses must now be built. Among other timbers, he
-brought down a magnificent specimen of a pine for a "Liberty Pole",
-which he assisted in raising on Pioneer Square. It was the first pole
-to carry the stars and stripes in the city. One had been raised on
-Ensign Peak before. They wintered in Salt Lake Valley. There another
-son, Orville M., was born November 29, 1847.
-
-Very early in the spring of 1848 father moved from the Adobe Fort with
-his wife and three children, and began farming in Sessionsville, Now
-Bountiful; He was the first bishop of the ward. There they had the
-famous experience with the crickets. He devised the broad paddles, as
-well as the oft mentioned methods, to try to exterminate them; and then
-came the Gulls. He raised a crop in '48 and '49 there; also he dug the
-first well in Bountiful, and struck water so suddenly as to be drowned
-by it before he could be hauled up. In the fall of '49 he was called to
-go with "Father" Morley's company to colonize the valley of Sanpitch.
-
-He arrived at the future site of Manti November 19, 1849. The journey
-from Salt Lake City to the Sanpete Valley occupied one month, breaking
-new roads, fixing fords, and building dug-ways. The forty families
-worked industriously, sometimes only movin' forward two or three miles.
-One six mile stretch in Salt Creek Canyon occupied them a whole week.
-The only settlement between Salt Lake and Manti was Provo, consisting
-of a little fort of green cottonwood logs.
-
-After getting through Salt Creek Canyon in two weeks, they worked to
-their upmost strength for it began snowing on them there; and it was
-far from being a desirable winter's home. That winter was one of the
-hardest with the heaviest snow fall for many succeeding years. Arriving
-at their destination, camp was made by the Morley's company on the
-south side of Temple Hill which was a sheltered spot. Now they must do
-their upmost in canyons, raising log cabins, sowing lumber on the saw
-pit, which was the most primitive of saw mills.
-
-Orville was an expert at hewing and squaring the logs with his ax, and
-making everything as comfortable as possible in their home. All winter
-long they had to help the cattle find feed by shovelling snow in the
-meadows, as the snow lay four feet deep. It was May before the snow was
-gone so that the men could begin to clear the ground and begin their
-farming. Then there came irrigating ditches to dig and the usual labor
-of clearing, plowing, and planting.
-
-Between their individual duties, they found time to build log school,
-and a bowery, and then a meeting house. They felt that it was quite
-commodious. Here in the long evenings of the winter of 1850-51 Cox
-taught a singing and dancing school. Sarah Potty was the first school
-of Ma'am. In the winter of 1850-51, school was taught by Jesse W. Fox.
-In 1850 he was elected Alderman.
-
-O.S. Cox married Mary Allen about 1854; he served many years as the
-first counselor to Bishop Lowry; and he was captain of the Militia. He
-was very energetic in the performance of his duties, especially through
-the protracted period of the Walker war. He married Eliza Losee about
-1857-59. He served under Major Higgins, and old Battalion veteran.
-
-To be sure, nobody appreciated more than he did a liberty pole, and all
-that it typified, so he was commissioned to find one at the earliest
-convenient moment for Manti; this he did in 1850. Ten years he labored
-faithfully for the upbuilding of Manti, and then like Boon and
-Crockett, "he wanted more elbow room" and moved to Fairview, Sanpete
-County. He also moved part of his family to Gunnison (Hog Wallow, it
-was called then) and raised two crops there. In February 1864, he moved
-part of his family to Glenwood, built a cabin there and raised a crop.
-He sold out and moved elsewhere to engineer ditches. He engineered over
-forty ditches in Utah and Nevada, as near as his children can remember
-in 1910, as well as doing all other kinds of pioneer work.
-
-In 1865 he was advised by Lorenzo Snow to move to the Muddy, a branch
-of the Rio Virgin, a stream running through Moappa Valley, to assist in
-surveying and making irrigation ditches there. The soil was very rich,
-but there was so much quick sand that it made it almost impossible to
-build a dam that hold or to irrigate without washing away the soil.
-So he went south into southeastern Nevada. He thought that was the
-route the saints would travel going back to Jackson County, so he was
-that much nearer the final home. He labored here for six years, and
-engineered a number of dams that would hold against the floods and
-treachery of quicksand. They had only poor home made plows and a few
-other tools to work with, and no cement or modern building material. He
-also built cabins and cleared and tilled the land there. In clearing
-the land, the "Mesquite" brush root was the hardest digging they
-encountered. St. Thomas, St. Joseph and Overton, the 3 towns in the
-valley were partly of his building. The first trip, he took with him
-his third wife, Eliza, and her one child, a little two year old girl;
-and Walter, a 14 year old son of the first wife, Elvira. The following
-year, after crops were in and the spring work done, he returned to
-Fairview after another section of his family--Mary, the second wife,
-and her five children. From that time on O.S. Cox's life is a volume of
-tragedy and hardship. The life in the burning desert is always more or
-less unpleasant, and pioneering is excessively hard. And he was past
-fifty years old.
-
-During his absence, Eliza's little girl Lucinda, took her little pail
-to the creek to get some water; the quicksand caused her to slip and
-she was drowned. They took her out not very far from down the stream,
-but could not resuscitate her. The poor mother, among strangers and
-homesick, was unconsolable in her sorrow. Walter, seeing his little
-pet companion stricken in all her robust beauty and health, was wild
-with grief, and could not be comforted. After a time the neighbors
-concluded that Walter would die if some change did not come to get
-him to sleep and eat. They told Eliza of their fears for him, and so
-the disconsolate mother tried to hide her own grief and comfort him.
-It is said it was the saddest thing the woman there ever saw, to see
-the brave mother and the boy trying to comfort each other in their
-loneliness. Fifty years later, it was a nightmare to Walt.
-
-Almer, Laun and Walt all went to the Muddy in 1867, the year Mary was
-moved. In 1868 Philmon, fifth son of Elvira, a very promising lad of
-thirteen, died of appendicitis, at that time called inflammation of the
-bowels. Then Mary lost a little daughter, Lucy for whom she grieved
-many years.
-
-Financially the prospects were more promising than ever before. They
-had planted a large orchard, and a vineyard that was just coming into
-bearing. Then a new line was run between the states of Utah and Nevada,
-which gave this section to Nevada, and Nevada demanded back taxes;
-and they amounted to more than their farms and houses were worth. So
-Brigham Young said, "Come home to Utah." They came.
-
-Elvira, with Orville a grown son, Walter 17, Tryphena, Amasa and
-Euphrasia, returned to the old home in Fairview, leaving all of their
-beautiful peach orchards and vineyards, fields of cotton, cane, wheat
-and the comfortable houses in the most fertile of lands, which they had
-subdued and made to "Blossom as the Rose" by seven long years of toil
-and privation. They rendered absolute obedience to their great leader;
-and so they hitched up their teams, took their most choice belongings,
-and wended their way back to Utah, leaving their settlement and farms
-to pay Nevada the back taxes it had demanded.
-
-One company which had thoroughly learned the trick of building a dam
-in quick sand of the desert, stopped at an abandoned settlement in
-Long Valley, Kane County. O.S. Cox and sons began the engineering of
-irrigation canals and dams, and so on, as they had cleaned and repaired
-the deserted cabins, so that they offered partial shelter from the
-February storms. The people named this town Mt. Carmel.
-
-When the former settlers learned that they had builded dams that would
-stand, they came back and said, "Get Out, this is ours," So the weary
-pioneers moved again, this time only a few miles farther up the valley
-into a pleasant narrow cove, and went to work to build more dams, more
-ditches and more cabins. In one place the water had to be carried
-across a gulley, and it gave more trouble than all the rest of the
-canal. After a while Cox, without comment or consultation, went into
-the timber and found a very large log and felled it, made of it a huge
-trough, placed it across the gully and it reached far enough to secure
-a solid bed above the quicksand. Thirty years later, this "Cox Trough"
-was still doing successful service as a flume.
-
-In 1875, when Brigham strongly taught the principle of Cooperation,
-this company of saints were organized by unanimous consent into the
-united order of Enoch, and named their town Orderville. Their little
-property, mostly cattle, horses and wagons, were owned jointly. Twelve
-years father labored joyously and unselfishly in the "Order". The town
-grew and thrived; the arts, schools and trades were remarkably well
-represented by the young. Prosperity and a measure of plenty was there,
-in spite of the fact that there were more infirm people in that ward
-than any ward in the church.
-
-Then dissatisfaction and disunion came, and the "Order" broke up.
-There was not a great deal of property to divide, although some people
-came out with more property with others, according to the amount they
-consecrated in. Mary and Eliza, father's second and third wives, each
-received a team and wagon. Mary and her family located in Huntington,
-Emery County, Eliza and her family in Tropic, Garfield County. Father
-well along in years, and broken in health, could do little more than
-advise his sons. Eliza was dying of cancer. In 1886 Orville S. Cox came
-to Fairview to the best-provided for branch of his family. One year he
-remained an invalid, and on July 4, 1888 he laid his exhausted body
-down to rest. The passing was quiet and peaceful. His two wives Elvira
-and Mary and many of his descendants were with him at the last.
-
-The following are some of the thriving towns O.S. Cox assisted in
-founding: Lima, Ill.; Pisgah, Iowa; Salt Lake City, Bountiful, Manti,
-Gunnuson, Fairview, Glenwood of Utah; St. Thomas, St. Joseph, Overton
-of Nevada; Mt. Carmel, Orderville and Tropic of Utah.
-
-If man ever earned his salvation, surely O.S. Cox did. Always found
-in the van where the hardest work was to be done, and if he advanced
-the cause one iota, no matter at what loss, or cost to himself, he
-considered he had been eminently successful. Never was there a murmur
-from him.
-
-To illustrate the ingenuity of O.S. Cox's ditch making, here is the
-story of the Pig Plow as told by an old settler of Fairview, Pappas
-Brady.
-
-"When the ditch was first laid out that was afterwards called "City
-Ditch", every man and boy was called on to come and work on it every
-day til it would carry water. This was in the spring, and it had to
-be finished before the fields were ready to be plowed and planted.
-The men turned out well with teams and plows, picks and crow bars and
-shovels. There was a rocky point at the head of the ditch to be ut
-through, and it was hard pan, about like cement. Couldn't be touched by
-plow, no siree; now more than nothing. We was just prying the gravel
-loose with picks and crowbars, and looked like it would take us weeks
-to do six rods. Yes, six weeks. Cox looked at us working and sweating,
-and never offered to lift a finger. No sir, never done a tap; just
-looked and then without saying a word, he turned around and walked off.
-Yes, sir, walked off! Well of all the mad bunch of men you ever saw
-I guess he was about the maddest. Of course, we didn't swear; we was
-Mormons and the Bishop was there, but we watched him go and one of the
-men says, "Well, I didn't think Cox was that kind of a feller." His
-going discouraged the rest of us, just took the heart out of us. But
-of course we plugged away pretendin' to work the rest of the day, and
-dragged back the next morning."
-
-"We weren't near all there when here came Cox. I don't just remember
-whether it was four yoke of oxen or six or eight, for I was just a boy,
-but it was a long string and they was every one of a good pulling ox.
-And they was hitched on to a plow a plumb new kind, yes sir, a new kind
-of plow. It was a great big pitch pine log, about fourteen feet long,
-and may have been eighteen, with a limb stickin' down like as if my arm
-and hand was the log and my thumb the limb; he had bored a hole through
-the log, and put a crow bar down in front of the knob; and cross ways
-along the log back of the limb he bored holes and put stout oak sticks
-through spikes. They were the plow handles; and he had eight man got
-ahold of them handles find hold the plow level and he loaded a bunch of
-men along on that log, and then he spoke to his oxen."
-
-"Great Scott, ye oter seen the gravel fly, and ye oter heard us fellers
-laugh and holler! Well, sir, he plowed up and down that ditch line four
-or five times and that ditch was made, practically made. All that the
-rest of us had to do was to shovel out the loose stuff; he done more in
-half a day than all the rest of us could a done in six weeks."
-
-"Why didn't he tell his plans the first thing, so we wouldn't be so
-discouraged, and hate him so? Why, cause he knew it wouldn't do a might
-of good to talk. He wasn't the Bishop; and even if he had been, plans
-like that would sure be hooted at by half the fellers. No, siree! His
-way was the best when a bunch of men and a thing a workin' they see
-believe; yes, sir, seein' is believin."
-
- The Pioneer Mother
-
- Upon a jolting wagon sent she rode
- Across the trackless prairie to the west,
- Or trudged behind the oxen with a goad,
- A sleeping child clasped tightly to her breast,
- Frail flesh rebelling, but spirit never--
- What tales the dark could tell of woman's tears!!--
- Her bravery incentive to endeavor;
- Her laughter spurring strong men past their fears.
-
- O to her valor and her comeliness
- A commonwealth today owes its white domes
- Of State, its fields, its highways, and its homes--
- Its cities wrested from the wilderness.
- Its bones in memory above the hand
- That gentled, woman-wise, a savage land.
-
- --Ethol Romig Fuller
-
-
-
-Transcriber's Note
-
-The original pamphlet contains many images that were omitted in this
-electronic version. Scans of the original work can be found at
-https://archive.org/details/biographicalsket00sidw. The poem "The
-Pioneer Mother," originally presented in a sidebar, has been moved
-to the end of the work for improved readability on typical e-reader
-devices.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of
-1847, by Adelia B. Cox Sidwell
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of 1847, by +Adelia B. Cox Sidwell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of 1847 + +Author: Adelia B. Cox Sidwell + +Release Date: October 27, 2015 [EBook #50322] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORVILLE SOUTHERLAND COX *** + + + + +Produced by Margaret Willden, Mormon Texts Project Intern +(http://mormontextsproject.org) + + + + + + + +Biographical Sketch of Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of 1847 + + +The Pioneer Spirit + + The Pioneer Spirit that mastered things + And Broke the virgin sod, + That conquered savages and kings, + And only bowed to God. + The Strength of mind and strength of soul-- + The will to do or die, + That sets its heart upon a goal, + And made it far or high-- + + --Clarence Hawkes + + +Orville Southerland Cox + +Biographical sketch of Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of 1847, partly +from a sketch written by Adelia B. Cox Sidwell for the "Daughters of +the Pioneers", Manti, Utah, 1913. + +Orville S. Cox, was born in Plymouth, N.Y. November 25, 1814. He was +one of a family of 12 children, ten of whom reached maturity. His +father died when he was about fifteen years old. And he was then "bound +out"; apprenticed to learn the trade of a blacksmith under a deacon +Jones, who was considered an excellent man as he was a pillar of the +church. The agreement was that he was to work obediently until twenty +one and that Jones as to give him board and clothes, three months +of school each winter, and teach him the trade of blacksmithing. +No schooling was given or allowed, and one pair of jeans pants was +all the clothing he received during the first three years of his +apprenticeship, and his food was rather limited too. The women folks +ran a dairy, but the boy was never allowed a drink of milk, of which +he was very fond because the Mrs. said "it made too big a hole in the +cheese." He was indeed a poor little bondsman, receiving plenty of +abusive treatment. As to teaching him the trade, he was kept blowing +the bellows and using the tongs and heavy sledge. But the deacon +sometimes went to distant places and then the boy secretly used the +tools and practiced doing the things his keen eyes had watched his +master do. During some of these hours of freedom, he made himself a +pair of skates from pieces of broken nails he gathered carefully and +saved. + +Also, he straightened a discarded gun barrel and made a hammer, +trigger, sights, etc, to it, so that he had an effective weapon. +These things he had to keep hidden from the eyes of his master and +associates, but secretly he had great joy in his possessions and once +in a while found a little time to use them. + +Occasionally the monotony at the bellows and with the tongs and +sledge--was broken in other ways;--for example--at one time oxen were +brought to the shop to be shod that had extremely hard hoofs, called +"glassy hoofs". Whenever Deacon undertook to drive a nail in, it bent. +Cox straightened nails over and over, as nails were precious articles +in those days and must not be discarded because they were bent. After a +while, the boy said "let me". And he shod the oxen without a bending a +single nail; And thereafter Cox shod the oxen, one and all that came to +the shop. + +One other pleasant duty was his: that of burning charcoal, as coal was +then undiscovered. He learned much of the trade of the woodman while +attending to the pits in the depth of the might New York Forests, as +well as having an opportunity to use his skates and gun a little. + +He acquired the cognoman of "Deek" among his associates, and when he +had worked for something over three years, he came to the conclusion +that was all he ever would acquire, along with harsh treatment; so +during one of the Deacon's visits to a distant parish, he gathered +together his few belongings and a lunch, between two days, shouldered +his home made gun and "hit the trail for the tall timber", that being +the route on which he was least apt to be discovered. He made his way +toward the Susquehannah river. First he reached the Tioga River, which +was a branch of the Susquehannah. He began reconnoitering for a means +of crossing or floating down the river and soon discovered a log canoe, +"dug-out" as it was called, frozen in the mud. He decided to confiscate +it as "contraband of war" and pried it up, launched it, and was soon +floating and paddling in it down toward the junction of the Tioga and +the Susquehannah. + +Shortly he felt his tired feet being submerged in cold water. Stooping +to investigate, he found that the log was leaky and rapidly filling +with water. He also found an old woolen firkin, a small barrel, that he +at once began making use of, bailing the water, alternately paddeling, +steering and bailing. He continued down the stream, keeping near the +shore as possible, in case the old dug-out should get the best of him. +The second day he heard "Hello, there, will you take a passenger?" from +a man on shore. "Yes, if you'll help bail, steer, and row." "Barkis is +willin", came the reply, so there were two in the log canoe. + +Then they made better time. Nearing the confluence of the rivers, they +saw a boat preparing to leave the dock for a trip up the Susquehannah, +a primitive stern wheel packet of those early days (1831). He and his +passenger applied themselves to their paddling, bailing and steering, +signalling the boat to wait; just as she started he drew near enough to +leap from the dug-out to her deck. + +A free boy! For now he was sure pursuit would not overtake him. His +passenger called "What shall I do with this canoe?" "Keep her or let +her float" shouted Cox. (If the owner of that dug-out will send in his +bill for damages, O.S. Cox's children will cheerfully settle.) As for +food on this trip with the canoe, game was plentiful and he was a good +shot. While on this boat, he must have worked his passage, for he had +no money. + +On board that boat with a Cargo of Southern Produce, he, for the first +time in his life, saw an orange. He remained on this little river +packet some distance up the river, then lended and found lucrative +employment at lumbering and logging, and sometimes at the blacksmith's +forge. Soon he had the good luck to find his two brothers, Walter and +Augustus, rafting logs down the river. He was an expert at this himself. + +Now he learned that his mother, and her younger children, Amos, +Harriet, Mary and Jonathan had gone to Ohio under the care of his +older brother, William U., via the great world famous Erie Canal; (at +that time the largest canal in the world.) So by slow degrees and +hard work he began to work his way toward Ohio. Usually he worked for +lumber companies. His two brothers did likewise. They literally walked +wall the way through the forests, the whole length of the state of +New York. Finally they were united as a family in Nelson, Portage Co. +Ohio, the former home of his future wife, Elvira, although she was +at that time an emigrant in Missouri. The eight Cox boys continued +their westward course; some of them reached California during the gold +stampede. Charles B. Cox was elected Senator from Santa Rosa Company +for a number of terms. William U. had put his property in a concern +called the Phalanx and was defrauded by the officers of every cent and +left in debt $3000.00, an enormous sum for those days. Orville's mother +Lucinda, and her family went to Missouri. Walter had receive the gospel +in Ohio previously. Orville heard terrible stories of the outlawry of +those "awful Mormons"; but he became personally acquainted with some +(Among them a Sylvester Hulet). He decided they were sinned against. +He lived in Jackson County for a time, and ever after Jackson County +Missouri was the goal of his ambition; He believed to his dying day +that he should one day return to that favored spot. + +Orville met and loved Elvira in Far West, but was not baptized. He said +he didn't propose to turn Mormon to procure a wife. When the Saints +were driven from Missouri, he located near Lima, Illinois, with a group +of Mormons and helped build the Morley settlement. + +Nearing his 24th birthday, he was a thorough frontiersman, forester, +lumberman, a splendid blacksmith, a natural born engineer; in short a +genius and an all around good fellow. He was six feet in his socks and +heavy proportionately. + +While here he won the heart of the orphan girl, Elvira P. Mills, who +was living with her uncle, Sylvester Hulet. But she hesitated about +marrying a gentile. October 3, 1839, however, she yielded, and they +were married in Father Elisha Whiting's home, at the Morley Settlement +by Elder Lyman Wight. + +The two newly weds, on October 6, 1839, drove into Nauvoo twenty miles +away, and Orville S. Cox was baptized by the Prophet Joseph Smith. He +went a gentile and returned a full-fledged Mormon, so short a time +it takes a woman to make a convert. He was a faithful L.D.S., full of +love and zeal. He was a member of the famous brass band of the Nauvoo +Legion. When the Prophet and his brother were killed, none mourned more +sincerely than he. He assisted those more helpless or destitute in the +migration from Nauvoo. His stacks of grain were burned at the Morley +settlement by the robbers, and they fled to the City of Nauvoo, he with +his wife and two children--the oldest child had died when an infant +as a result of its mother having chills and fever, and from exposure +resulting from mobbers' violence. + +He attended the meeting where Sidney Rigdon asked the Saints to +appoint him as guardian, and where Brigham Young claimed that the +Twelve Apostles were the ordained leaders; and many times thereafter +he testified that he saw Brigham Young changed to appear like +Joseph and heard his voice take on the Prophet's tone. And after +that manifestation he never doubted for a moment that the rightful +leadership of the Church was vested in the twelve, with Brigham Young +at their head. He remained in Nauvoo till almost the last departed. He +assisted Browning in transforming the old rusty steamer shafts into +cannons that were so effectually used by Daniel H. Wells at the Battle +of Nauvoo. + +Leaving Nauvoo with the last of the Mormon exiles, he crossed Iowa +and settled at Pisgah, where he served as counselor to Lorenzo Snow, +President at Mt. Pisgah. In his devoted attachment to Lorenzo Snow, +he was an enthusiast; also to Father Morley and he would follow their +leadership anywhere. Orville and Elvira had their two children, Almer +and Adelia. + +An incident that illustrated the pioneer life of 1845-6 is told in the +story of the "Last Match." In the winter of 1845-6 Orville S. Cox and +two Whiting boys, cousins of Elvira, went from Pisgah with ox teams and +wagons down into Missouri with a load of chairs to sell. Whitings had a +shop in which they manufactured chairs. Being successful in disposing +of their chairs, and securing loads of bacon and corn, they were almost +home when an Iowa blizzard, or hurricane, or cyclone, or all in one, +struck them. Clouds and Egyptian darkness settled suddenly around them. +They had not modern "tornado cellars" to flee into and no manner of +shelter of any kind. The cold was intense; the wind came from every +direction; they were all skilled backwoodsmen and knew they were very +close to their homes; but they also knew that they were hopelessly lost +in that swirling wind and those black clouds of snow. They and their +oxen were freezing, and their only hope of life was in making a fire +and camping where they were. Everything was wet and under the snow, +and an arctic wind in the fierceness of unclaimed violence was raging +around them. At first, they unyoked the oxen that they might find some +sort of shelter for themselves. Then with frost-bitten fingers they +sought in the darkness and storm for dry fuel. The best they found was +damp and poor enough--and now for a match. Only three in the crowd, and +no such matches as we have in these days either. Inside a large wooden +bucket in which they fed grain, they carefully laid their kindling. +Then turning another bucket over it to keep out of the falling snow, +and hugging close over to keep the wind off, they lifted the top +bucket a little and one of the Whiting boys struck a precious match. +It flickered, blazed a moment against the kindling and was puffed out +by a draft of wind. Another match was taken, and it died almost before +it flared. Only one match remained to save three men from certain +death. Their fingers were so numb they could not feel, and every minute +increased their numbness. "Let Orville Try; he is steadier than we", +they said. So Orville, keenly sensing his responsibility, took the tiny +splinter of wood and struck the spark; it caught, it blazed and the +fire lived and grew. + +Now they were in the woods and the fuel was plentiful and soon a +roaring blaze was swirling upward. The cattle came near, and although +their noses and feet were frozen, their feet grew new hoofs and +their noses healed of frosted cracks. When the storm broke and light +appeared, they found themselves only a few rocks from their home fences. + +For a good reason, Orville was not in the Battalion draft. The Whiting +boys, Sylvester Hulet, and Amos Cox were. But Orville was very busy +manufacturing wagons. It was told of him that he found a linch pin and +said, "I'll just make a wagon to fit that pin". He prepared as good +and serviceable an outfit as his limited means would allow for the +long dreary journey to the mountains. Two home made wagons, without +brakes--brakes were not needed on the eastern end of the journey--two +yoke of oxen, three yoke of cows, a box of chickens on the back of a +wagon, a wife and two children, with bedding and food, was the outfit +that started across the plains the last of June 1847, singing the song +"In the spring we'll take our journey. All to cross the grassy plains." +He travelled in the hundred of Charles C. Rich, known as the Artillery +Company. Cox was captain of one of the tens. Oh! the seemingly endless +level prairie! The monotony was terribly wearing. When Independence +Rock was sighted, and again when Chimney Rock was sighted, it was +wonderful relief. Great land marks they were, in that unsettled +country. Now they were sure they were approaching the Rocky Mountains, +especially the children longed for that goal. + +One evening at camping time, 4:00 P.M., a herd of buffalo were sighted +about two miles away. The people were very hungry for a piece of fresh +beef, so Father and one companion shouldered their guns, snatched +their percussion caps and powder horns, and started to "try a hunter's +luck." About sunset they got their steak, a generous load of the best +cuts from the Buffalo, and started for camp. On and on they went. What +they thought was a two mile stretch lengthened and lengthened, and +their loads of meat grew heavier and heavier. They began to think they +were lost; but the camp fires and stars told them they were going in +the right direction. Finally they decided to fire their guns. This +they did, and it filled the camp with alarm, least the hunters were in +danger. Two or three men rushed away in the darkness to give aid, and +they fired their guns to locate the hunters. Several shots brought them +together. "Help us with this grub pile", they said. Help was given. +They reached the camp at 11:00 o'clock. It must have been six miles or +perhaps ten to the herd of buffalo. They were now in the clear air of +the up-lands and could see much farther than they had been able to see +in the Mississippi valley. + +The next morning all in the camp had a feast of fresh meat. + +After leaving the Platte River, while travelling along the sweet Water +River, the company met General Kearney and his company of Battalion +scouts with their illustrious prisoner, the great path-finder Freemont. + +(When California was freed from Mexican rule, Freemont and his little +band, who had helped to free it, were greatly rejoiced; and in their +enthusiasm his followers proclaimed Freemont governor. General Kearney +arrived and expected to be governor by right of his generalship. He was +very angry and had Freemont arrested and sent to Washington.) + +With Freemont's guards were Sylvester Hulet, Elvira's Uncle, and Amos +Cox. They had traveled many weary months in an unknown, lonely country; +and C.C. Riche's company were also travel weary. To thus meet relatives +so unexpectedly was a joy unspeakable to both parties. + +Now the battalion men heard from their families left in Iowa, for the +first time in more than a year. And tears of joy and sorrow were freely +mingled. A daughter of Amos had died. Sylvester's wife had gone to +New York where the Whitmer's and her father and brothers lived; so he +decided to return to the Rocky Mountains with the pioneers, and Kearney +gave him his discharge. Amos Cox continued with the prisoner to Fort +Leavenworth, where he received his honorable discharge, and then went +to his weary waiting family in Iowa. + +The pioneering company continued on westward. At Green River, near +Bridger's Station, they met pioneers who had reached Great Salt Lake +Valley and made a start toward a new home; and were now returning to +the camps in Iowa, with more definite knowledge and instructions to +impart to those who were to come to the mountains next year. They told +Rich's company many things regarding the way that lay before them, and +it was a great relief to know that they were nearing their destination. + +From now on the mountains were on every side; frowning cliffs looked +ready to fall on and crush the poor foot-sore travelers; for people +raised on the plains are apt to have a shuddering of such sights. C.C. +Riche's artillery company rolled into the valley of the great Salt +Lake. They were only two or three days behind Jedediah M. Grant's +company of one hundred wagons. + +Being expert in handling lumber, Cox was immediately sent into the +canyon for logs. Houses must now be built. Among other timbers, he +brought down a magnificent specimen of a pine for a "Liberty Pole", +which he assisted in raising on Pioneer Square. It was the first pole +to carry the stars and stripes in the city. One had been raised on +Ensign Peak before. They wintered in Salt Lake Valley. There another +son, Orville M., was born November 29, 1847. + +Very early in the spring of 1848 father moved from the Adobe Fort with +his wife and three children, and began farming in Sessionsville, Now +Bountiful; He was the first bishop of the ward. There they had the +famous experience with the crickets. He devised the broad paddles, as +well as the oft mentioned methods, to try to exterminate them; and then +came the Gulls. He raised a crop in '48 and '49 there; also he dug the +first well in Bountiful, and struck water so suddenly as to be drowned +by it before he could be hauled up. In the fall of '49 he was called to +go with "Father" Morley's company to colonize the valley of Sanpitch. + +He arrived at the future site of Manti November 19, 1849. The journey +from Salt Lake City to the Sanpete Valley occupied one month, breaking +new roads, fixing fords, and building dug-ways. The forty families +worked industriously, sometimes only movin' forward two or three miles. +One six mile stretch in Salt Creek Canyon occupied them a whole week. +The only settlement between Salt Lake and Manti was Provo, consisting +of a little fort of green cottonwood logs. + +After getting through Salt Creek Canyon in two weeks, they worked to +their upmost strength for it began snowing on them there; and it was +far from being a desirable winter's home. That winter was one of the +hardest with the heaviest snow fall for many succeeding years. Arriving +at their destination, camp was made by the Morley's company on the +south side of Temple Hill which was a sheltered spot. Now they must do +their upmost in canyons, raising log cabins, sowing lumber on the saw +pit, which was the most primitive of saw mills. + +Orville was an expert at hewing and squaring the logs with his ax, and +making everything as comfortable as possible in their home. All winter +long they had to help the cattle find feed by shovelling snow in the +meadows, as the snow lay four feet deep. It was May before the snow was +gone so that the men could begin to clear the ground and begin their +farming. Then there came irrigating ditches to dig and the usual labor +of clearing, plowing, and planting. + +Between their individual duties, they found time to build log school, +and a bowery, and then a meeting house. They felt that it was quite +commodious. Here in the long evenings of the winter of 1850-51 Cox +taught a singing and dancing school. Sarah Potty was the first school +of Ma'am. In the winter of 1850-51, school was taught by Jesse W. Fox. +In 1850 he was elected Alderman. + +O.S. Cox married Mary Allen about 1854; he served many years as the +first counselor to Bishop Lowry; and he was captain of the Militia. He +was very energetic in the performance of his duties, especially through +the protracted period of the Walker war. He married Eliza Losee about +1857-59. He served under Major Higgins, and old Battalion veteran. + +To be sure, nobody appreciated more than he did a liberty pole, and all +that it typified, so he was commissioned to find one at the earliest +convenient moment for Manti; this he did in 1850. Ten years he labored +faithfully for the upbuilding of Manti, and then like Boon and +Crockett, "he wanted more elbow room" and moved to Fairview, Sanpete +County. He also moved part of his family to Gunnison (Hog Wallow, it +was called then) and raised two crops there. In February 1864, he moved +part of his family to Glenwood, built a cabin there and raised a crop. +He sold out and moved elsewhere to engineer ditches. He engineered over +forty ditches in Utah and Nevada, as near as his children can remember +in 1910, as well as doing all other kinds of pioneer work. + +In 1865 he was advised by Lorenzo Snow to move to the Muddy, a branch +of the Rio Virgin, a stream running through Moappa Valley, to assist in +surveying and making irrigation ditches there. The soil was very rich, +but there was so much quick sand that it made it almost impossible to +build a dam that hold or to irrigate without washing away the soil. +So he went south into southeastern Nevada. He thought that was the +route the saints would travel going back to Jackson County, so he was +that much nearer the final home. He labored here for six years, and +engineered a number of dams that would hold against the floods and +treachery of quicksand. They had only poor home made plows and a few +other tools to work with, and no cement or modern building material. He +also built cabins and cleared and tilled the land there. In clearing +the land, the "Mesquite" brush root was the hardest digging they +encountered. St. Thomas, St. Joseph and Overton, the 3 towns in the +valley were partly of his building. The first trip, he took with him +his third wife, Eliza, and her one child, a little two year old girl; +and Walter, a 14 year old son of the first wife, Elvira. The following +year, after crops were in and the spring work done, he returned to +Fairview after another section of his family--Mary, the second wife, +and her five children. From that time on O.S. Cox's life is a volume of +tragedy and hardship. The life in the burning desert is always more or +less unpleasant, and pioneering is excessively hard. And he was past +fifty years old. + +During his absence, Eliza's little girl Lucinda, took her little pail +to the creek to get some water; the quicksand caused her to slip and +she was drowned. They took her out not very far from down the stream, +but could not resuscitate her. The poor mother, among strangers and +homesick, was unconsolable in her sorrow. Walter, seeing his little +pet companion stricken in all her robust beauty and health, was wild +with grief, and could not be comforted. After a time the neighbors +concluded that Walter would die if some change did not come to get +him to sleep and eat. They told Eliza of their fears for him, and so +the disconsolate mother tried to hide her own grief and comfort him. +It is said it was the saddest thing the woman there ever saw, to see +the brave mother and the boy trying to comfort each other in their +loneliness. Fifty years later, it was a nightmare to Walt. + +Almer, Laun and Walt all went to the Muddy in 1867, the year Mary was +moved. In 1868 Philmon, fifth son of Elvira, a very promising lad of +thirteen, died of appendicitis, at that time called inflammation of the +bowels. Then Mary lost a little daughter, Lucy for whom she grieved +many years. + +Financially the prospects were more promising than ever before. They +had planted a large orchard, and a vineyard that was just coming into +bearing. Then a new line was run between the states of Utah and Nevada, +which gave this section to Nevada, and Nevada demanded back taxes; +and they amounted to more than their farms and houses were worth. So +Brigham Young said, "Come home to Utah." They came. + +Elvira, with Orville a grown son, Walter 17, Tryphena, Amasa and +Euphrasia, returned to the old home in Fairview, leaving all of their +beautiful peach orchards and vineyards, fields of cotton, cane, wheat +and the comfortable houses in the most fertile of lands, which they had +subdued and made to "Blossom as the Rose" by seven long years of toil +and privation. They rendered absolute obedience to their great leader; +and so they hitched up their teams, took their most choice belongings, +and wended their way back to Utah, leaving their settlement and farms +to pay Nevada the back taxes it had demanded. + +One company which had thoroughly learned the trick of building a dam +in quick sand of the desert, stopped at an abandoned settlement in +Long Valley, Kane County. O.S. Cox and sons began the engineering of +irrigation canals and dams, and so on, as they had cleaned and repaired +the deserted cabins, so that they offered partial shelter from the +February storms. The people named this town Mt. Carmel. + +When the former settlers learned that they had builded dams that would +stand, they came back and said, "Get Out, this is ours," So the weary +pioneers moved again, this time only a few miles farther up the valley +into a pleasant narrow cove, and went to work to build more dams, more +ditches and more cabins. In one place the water had to be carried +across a gulley, and it gave more trouble than all the rest of the +canal. After a while Cox, without comment or consultation, went into +the timber and found a very large log and felled it, made of it a huge +trough, placed it across the gully and it reached far enough to secure +a solid bed above the quicksand. Thirty years later, this "Cox Trough" +was still doing successful service as a flume. + +In 1875, when Brigham strongly taught the principle of Cooperation, +this company of saints were organized by unanimous consent into the +united order of Enoch, and named their town Orderville. Their little +property, mostly cattle, horses and wagons, were owned jointly. Twelve +years father labored joyously and unselfishly in the "Order". The town +grew and thrived; the arts, schools and trades were remarkably well +represented by the young. Prosperity and a measure of plenty was there, +in spite of the fact that there were more infirm people in that ward +than any ward in the church. + +Then dissatisfaction and disunion came, and the "Order" broke up. +There was not a great deal of property to divide, although some people +came out with more property with others, according to the amount they +consecrated in. Mary and Eliza, father's second and third wives, each +received a team and wagon. Mary and her family located in Huntington, +Emery County, Eliza and her family in Tropic, Garfield County. Father +well along in years, and broken in health, could do little more than +advise his sons. Eliza was dying of cancer. In 1886 Orville S. Cox came +to Fairview to the best-provided for branch of his family. One year he +remained an invalid, and on July 4, 1888 he laid his exhausted body +down to rest. The passing was quiet and peaceful. His two wives Elvira +and Mary and many of his descendants were with him at the last. + +The following are some of the thriving towns O.S. Cox assisted in +founding: Lima, Ill.; Pisgah, Iowa; Salt Lake City, Bountiful, Manti, +Gunnuson, Fairview, Glenwood of Utah; St. Thomas, St. Joseph, Overton +of Nevada; Mt. Carmel, Orderville and Tropic of Utah. + +If man ever earned his salvation, surely O.S. Cox did. Always found +in the van where the hardest work was to be done, and if he advanced +the cause one iota, no matter at what loss, or cost to himself, he +considered he had been eminently successful. Never was there a murmur +from him. + +To illustrate the ingenuity of O.S. Cox's ditch making, here is the +story of the Pig Plow as told by an old settler of Fairview, Pappas +Brady. + +"When the ditch was first laid out that was afterwards called "City +Ditch", every man and boy was called on to come and work on it every +day til it would carry water. This was in the spring, and it had to +be finished before the fields were ready to be plowed and planted. +The men turned out well with teams and plows, picks and crow bars and +shovels. There was a rocky point at the head of the ditch to be ut +through, and it was hard pan, about like cement. Couldn't be touched by +plow, no siree; now more than nothing. We was just prying the gravel +loose with picks and crowbars, and looked like it would take us weeks +to do six rods. Yes, six weeks. Cox looked at us working and sweating, +and never offered to lift a finger. No sir, never done a tap; just +looked and then without saying a word, he turned around and walked off. +Yes, sir, walked off! Well of all the mad bunch of men you ever saw +I guess he was about the maddest. Of course, we didn't swear; we was +Mormons and the Bishop was there, but we watched him go and one of the +men says, "Well, I didn't think Cox was that kind of a feller." His +going discouraged the rest of us, just took the heart out of us. But +of course we plugged away pretendin' to work the rest of the day, and +dragged back the next morning." + +"We weren't near all there when here came Cox. I don't just remember +whether it was four yoke of oxen or six or eight, for I was just a boy, +but it was a long string and they was every one of a good pulling ox. +And they was hitched on to a plow a plumb new kind, yes sir, a new kind +of plow. It was a great big pitch pine log, about fourteen feet long, +and may have been eighteen, with a limb stickin' down like as if my arm +and hand was the log and my thumb the limb; he had bored a hole through +the log, and put a crow bar down in front of the knob; and cross ways +along the log back of the limb he bored holes and put stout oak sticks +through spikes. They were the plow handles; and he had eight man got +ahold of them handles find hold the plow level and he loaded a bunch of +men along on that log, and then he spoke to his oxen." + +"Great Scott, ye oter seen the gravel fly, and ye oter heard us fellers +laugh and holler! Well, sir, he plowed up and down that ditch line four +or five times and that ditch was made, practically made. All that the +rest of us had to do was to shovel out the loose stuff; he done more in +half a day than all the rest of us could a done in six weeks." + +"Why didn't he tell his plans the first thing, so we wouldn't be so +discouraged, and hate him so? Why, cause he knew it wouldn't do a might +of good to talk. He wasn't the Bishop; and even if he had been, plans +like that would sure be hooted at by half the fellers. No, siree! His +way was the best when a bunch of men and a thing a workin' they see +believe; yes, sir, seein' is believin." + + The Pioneer Mother + + Upon a jolting wagon sent she rode + Across the trackless prairie to the west, + Or trudged behind the oxen with a goad, + A sleeping child clasped tightly to her breast, + Frail flesh rebelling, but spirit never-- + What tales the dark could tell of woman's tears!!-- + Her bravery incentive to endeavor; + Her laughter spurring strong men past their fears. + + O to her valor and her comeliness + A commonwealth today owes its white domes + Of State, its fields, its highways, and its homes-- + Its cities wrested from the wilderness. + Its bones in memory above the hand + That gentled, woman-wise, a savage land. + + --Ethol Romig Fuller + + + +Transcriber's Note + +The original pamphlet contains many images that were omitted in this +electronic version. Scans of the original work can be found at +https://archive.org/details/biographicalsket00sidw. The poem "The +Pioneer Mother," originally presented in a sidebar, has been moved +to the end of the work for improved readability on typical e-reader +devices. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Orville Southerland Cox, Pioneer of +1847, by Adelia B. Cox Sidwell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORVILLE SOUTHERLAND COX *** + +***** This file should be named 50322.txt or 50322.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/3/2/50322/ + +Produced by Margaret Willden, Mormon Texts Project Intern +(http://mormontextsproject.org) + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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